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SPRAQUC'S 
^•* SPEECHES 



n COLLECTION OF AFTER-DINNER SPEECHES, 
AND MISCELLANEOUS ADDRESSES ^^^ 



WILLIAM C?5PRAGUE 

%!ffit^ or THE 

5J:-Jf2^ DETROIT B7\R 

^|§^i^ PRESIDENT OP 
THE SPRAGUE 
CORRESPONDENCE 
SCHOOLS OP LAW 
AND 
dOURNALISn. 



COLLECTOR 

PUBLISHING 

COMP?CNY, 

DETROIT, 

MICH. 

1595. 



1st CO^ 



3 31898 

^^s^er of Covf 



TWO COPIES RECtiVED^ 



^S^ioo 



1^^ 



copyrighted by the 

Collector Publishing Company, 

1898. 



PREFACE. 

Some of my friends have in unguarded moments told 
me that they liked my speeches. Encouraged by these 
expressions, and actuated by a commercial spirit, I venture 
to put in book form some of the children of my brain that, 
having once been born and received a name and some little 
attention from admiring friends, have served no further 
purpose than to fill dusty pigeonholes in my desk and 
lumber up nooks and corners of my home and my office, 
which should be reserved for better things. 

Some little experience in marketing books among young 
men has shown me that there is a demand for every-day 
speeches, on every-day topics, made by every-day men. 
Speeches by Pitt, Curran, Webster, Calhoun, Phillips, 
Beecher, and other men of like caliber, will continue 
to be a staple in the market for many generations to come ; 
but the speeches of these giants of the rostrum and forum 
are a little "too much" for the average young man who 
wants some suggestions and inspiration in the direction of 
speech-making. Speeches by Hezekiah Smithers, of Po- 
dunk, Ky., will sell well along side of the great speeches of 
Daniel Webster, because Smithers has a way of saying 
things that can be to a certain degree imitated with profit 
by the common, average man. It is in the belief, somewhat 
presumptuous perhaps on my part, that I am something of 
a Smithers myself, that I oflfer this book to the public. 

These speeches have not had the stamp of approval put 
upon them by professors of rhetoric, or schools of oratory ; 



CONTENTS. 



PACKS. 

Preface, ------ iii— iv 

The Funeral of Charles Sumner, - - i- 5 

The Old World visits the New, - - 6-12 

Farewell, - - - - - 13-17 

The Disease and its Remedy, - - . 18- 31 

The Unknown Land, . _ _ 22- 43 

The Music of the Future, _ . . 44. 46 

What Can a Young Man Do? - - 47- 53 
The Sunday School Teacher and His Problems, 54- 65 

Masonry, and the Year Before Us, - 66- 76 

Beta Bachelors, - - - -77-86 

Does the Church Shrink from Contact with 

Practical Life, - - - -87-95 

Newspaper Etiquette, . - . 96-103 

The Dead Debtor, . - _ . 104-105 

Around Our Chapter Fire, - - 106-108 

Four Years and More have Gone, - - 109-ixi 

Our Friends, — the Enemy, - - - 112-119 

The Law and the Schoolmaster, - - 120-146 

The Signs of the Times, - - - 147-151 

The Steps that Led Up to Magna Charta, - 152-168 

The Minnesota Association, - - 169-173 

Address to Newsboys, - - - . 174-182 

Presentation Speech, - - 183-188 



THE FUNERAL OF CHARLES SUMNER. 

It was a stormy day, — if I remember rightly — the day on 
which Charles Sumner died. The day opens as other days 
at the national capitol, but closes as few others do ; a day of 
bustling activity succeeds ; the streets, as on other days, are 
filled with restless, hurrying throngs ; and at noon the two 
flags wave over the wings of the capitol, proclaiming that 
laws are making and unmaking. Thus far and until the 
middle of the afternoon this day is like other days at Wash- 
ington. 

The hour of three draws nigh, the sun goes down behind 
the great white dome of the capitol with its lengthening 
shadows, and a solemn silence falls like a mantle over the 
city, — a silence broken by the first startling intelligence from 
the shrill voice of the newsboy as he speeds from one to 
another with the blackly leaded sheet. The wheels of gov- 
ernment stop ; the massive doors of the departments close ; 
men descend the steps of the capitol ; death has entered the 
gates of the city ; and the proud capital trembles to its very 
center. The cannon's peel announces the setting of the 
sun and darkness settles over a mourning city, — a darkness 
that with lightning speed spreads from ocean to ocean. 
Such is the day on which Sumner dies. To-day, Sumner 
dies ; to-morrow wears its weary length away, and, the next, 
the nation pays tribute to its illustrious dead. Rain in fit- 
ful torrents splashes upon the house-tops and the paved 
streets, but the great national heart is beating with a 



2 SPR AGUE'S SPEECHES. 

greater tumult within. Despite the rain, men, women and 
children press eagerly toward the capitol, for within its 
walls can be seen for the last time the remains of him they 
mourn. Upon a bier in the center of the rotunda, amid 
wreaths and crosses of flowers, he lies, while on either side 
stand with bowed heads the members of the two branches 
of Congress. Moments of great solemnity follow, then the 
great bronze doors are thrown open to the waiting throngs. 
One by one these men, his comrades for years, step forward 
to look for the last time into the face of their fallen brother. 
This farewell taken, the signal is given and the great doors 
of the rotunda are thrown open to the multitudes that file 
in from the west, move slowly by the bier and out to the 
east. Heartfelt sorrow, not mere idle curiosity, is plainly 
written upon the faces of this vast army of people. I be- 
lieve no man, not excepting Garfield, and I had almost said 
Lincoln himself, possessed the love of the common masses 
of this country as did Charles Sumner. Heartfelt sorrow, 
not mere awe felt in the presence of death, causes this pro- 
found silence, broken only by suppressed weeping. I see 
strong men brush away the tears as they gaze for the last 
time upon this silent face ; and, most impressive of all, aged 
negroes cling to the coffin and refuse to be led away, while 
others, sobbing aloud, lift their children in their arms that 
they may see the great and good man who did so much for 
their race. Slowly, very slowly, the sad procession passes 
through. Hours go and come and still the crowd surges 
on, until the doors are closed and thousands return disap- 
pointed to their homes. Two by two the Senators resume 



SPRAGUE'S SPEECHES. 3 

their places in the Senate, accompanied by the representa- 
tives, who enter and take seats assigned them, A moment 
elapses and there enter the Chief Justice of the United 
States and his associates, in their solemn robes of ofQce, 
followed in perfect silence by the President of the United 
States and his cabinet, who, walking slowly down the 
broad center aisle, take seats assigned them at the very 
front. Following comes the old world, represented by the 
diplomatic corps, — representatives from every civilized na- 
tion upon the face of the globe, in their robes of office, to do 
honor to the dead statesman who for so many years was 
chairman of the committee on foreign relations, and had 
moulded the policy of our government towards their own. 
Then come the chief officers of the army, navy and marine 
corps ; and then the Massachusetts delegation in Congress. 
A moment of awful stillness follows, and Charles Sumner 
is once more in the Senate, borne on the shoulders of eight 
stalwart representatives of the race he has befriended, and 
escorted by the pallbearers appointed by the Senate. Ten- 
derly they place the coffin on the spot assigned it, and 
the vast concourse in the galleries and on the floor, 
as silent as death itself, listen with bated breath while 
the chaplain of the house, the Rev. Mr. Butler, leads 
the nation here assembled in solemn prayer. His read- 
ing is from ist Cor. 15:20-28. His prayer begins: Great 
God, we bow reverently in Thy presence. Thou hast 
done it; teach us wisdom as we walk among the graves. 
Bless the millions who gather tenderly around this coffin 
to-day. Bless our own great land, and give unto us rec- 
ords of truth and righteousness. We ask this in the name 



4 SPRAGUE'S SPEECHES. 

and for the sake of Him who has taught us to say, — (and 
closing with the Lord's prayer). Following the prayer, 
the Rev. Byron Sunderland reads the 39th Psalm, verses 5 
to 13, and Psalm 90, and offers one of the most solemn and 
impressive petitions that, perhaps, the lips of man have ever 
uttered, and closing with the beautiful expression, "O God, 
the God of our Fathers, bless this nation and all the na- 
tions; bless us and all men together and, when we come 
to die, open Thou for us the portals of eternity and crown 
every soul with a pure and blessed and a glorious immor- 
tality." The prayer ended, the President pro tem. Senator 
Carpenter of Wisconsin, rises in his place and says, "The 
service to be performed by the committee of arrangements 
having been terminated, the Senate of the United States 
entrusts the mortal remains of Charles Sumner to its ser- 
geant-at-arms and a committee appointed by it, charged 
with the melancholy duty of conveying them to his home, 
there to be committed, earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust 
to dust, in the soil of Massachusetts. Peace to his ashes." 
What a scene! Here were assembled the governors of 
this mighty republic; here were assembled in their black 
robes the members of that august tribunal which wields 
jurisdiction over forty-six States and Territories ; here, too, 
came the chief magistrate of the nation, with his cabinet of 
counselors, and lastly, side by side sat the embassadors of 
the great powers of the earth, in their robes of office. All 
these were here, hushed and sad, while lying low in his 
coffin, all insensible to the imposing pageant, and about to 



SPRA G UE'S SPEE CHES. 5 

be committed earth to earth, dust to dust, was one of the 
greatest of them all, who for twenty-two years had been a 
living power, influencing in, perhaps, a larger degree than 
any other the opinions of men. A nation, indeed, at the 
funeral of its greatest statesman ! Where a brush that can 
adequately paint that scene ! Where a pen to write what 
the brush can ne'er portray ! 

Such is the scene I gazed upon, with scarcely the com- 
prehension to grasp it ; and yet I could but feel that in the 
great sorrow and loss of all I had some little part; for I 
had come to look upon Charles Sumner as my ideal. 

The voice of Massachusetts is heard claiming her dead 
Senator, and he is borne from the Senate chamber. Down 
the avenue through a driving rain, slowly moves the funeral 
cortege, while the chimes of the city toll the funeral march. 

Charles Sumner's wisdom had given him a high place 
in the national regard. His purity of character and motive 
had gained him the respect and esteem of his associates ; 
and his mighty efforts for humanity had given him world- 
wide fame and had endeared him to all mankind. No won- 
der that our country mourned his death ! No wonder that 
all Europe bowed her head in reverential grief ! 



THE OLD WORLD VISITS THE NEW. 

DESCRIPTION OF THE VISIT OF A JAPANESE EMBASSY 
TO THE NATIONAL HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. 

Of the many interesting events that come crowding upon 
my memory, as I think of my boyhood days spent in Wash- 
ington, few come to me with more vividness, perhaps, than 
that of the visit of the Japanese Embassy to the House of 
Representatives in March, 1872. On the 28th day of Feb- 
ruary, 1872, there appeared in Washington one of the most 
distinguished embassys that has ever come to this country. 
It came from a nation theretofore the most exclusive and 
most averse to diplomatic relations of any on the face of the 
globe, — Japan. Indeed, it was, without exception, the most 
important embassy that had ever left that country, — and, 
indeed, any eastern country ; not only important on account 
of its mission and object, but because of the dignity and 
high rank of the members composing it. Its object was to 
obtain information as to political, industrial and social af- 
fairs in this country, and to gain instruction as to the re- 
newal of existing treaties. The embassy was received by 
both houses of Congress in a manner befitting the character 
of the embassy itself and the importance of its mission. 
The embassadors were twenty-one in number, accompanied 
by a large retinue, the half of them being ladies of 
high birth. The chief embassador was Iwakura, so titled 
as being the person always in attendance upon the Emperor. 
With him came three vice-embassadors, and other minor 

6 



SPR AGUE'S SPEECHES. 7 

officials — the chief officers of the eight different depart- 
ments of the Japanese nation. It was indeed as if our 
cabinet and Supreme Court were in a body to pay an ex- 
tended visit to London to obtain information with which 
to fashion our policy and run our government. The ap- 
pearance of this distinguished embassy upon the floor of 
the house, for the purpose of paying its respects to the 
American Congress, was indeed a remarkable event. It 
was the oldest nation acknowledging its debt to the young- 
est. My extreme youth made it impossible for me to real- 
ize the full meaning of this event, but enough was said and 
done to stamp the scene indelibly upon my memory. 

The day's session has begun, and the floor of Congress 
presents the usual busy scene, with nothing to indicate the 
approach of an unusual event. The first indication is music 
from a band. If there is any remarkable political event 
that has occurred in this country without the assistance of 
a brass band, I have yet to hear of it ; and if there was ever 
an American small boy that could hear the music of a brass 
band above the din of Congress and through the thick 
walls of the capitol itself, I was that boy. In a few moments 
there appears in the main aisle of the house a messenger, 
who, being recognized by Speaker Blaine, announces the 
presence in waiting of the Senate of the United States. Mr. 
Blaine at once rises and raps with his gavel ; the members 
rise and stand in their places, while the Senators, two by 
two, led by their presiding officer, file in and take seats or 
stand about in the aisles, as convenience dictates. Mr. 
Blaine invites to his side the President of the Senate, who, 



8 SPR AGUE'S SPEECHES. 

at that time, I think, was Senator David Davis. A rap 
of the speaker's gavel and the assembly is again seated. A 
few moments of waiting and another messenger appears, 
this time to announce the approach of the Prime Minister 
of Japan and his suite. Again the gavel descends and the 
American Congress stands in expectant interest. 

The galleries are by this time full to overflowing, and the 
cloak rooms and ante-rooms of the house are emptied of 
their accustomed loungers. There is a deep silence, as 
always in a great assembly at the climax of interest; then 
appears at the main door, opposite the Speaker's desk, the 
Chief Embassador, leaning upon the arm of our Secretary 
of State and followed by the other embassadors, each sup- 
ported by a distinguished American. The Japanese, 
dressed in their Oriental robes of of^ce, their chief carry- 
ing in his hand a roll of parchment, present the appearance 
of highly cultured and intellectual Orientals. Passing 
down the broad central aisle and reaching the arena in front 
of Mr. Blaine, the procession parts and forms a circle fac- 
ing him. Nathaniel P. Banks, on behalf of the committee 
appointed to receive the embassy, addressing the Speaker, 
says : 

"Mr. Speaker, the committee of the House assigned to 
that duty, in accordance with its- instructions, has now the 
honor to present to you and the House his Excellency, 
Mr. Iwakura, their Excellencies Mr. Kido, Mr. Okubo, and 
Mr. Ito, the Embassador-in-chief and the Assistant Embas- 
sadors of the Government of Japan ; the honorable secre- 
taries of the embassy, and the honorable commissioners of 



SPRAGUE'S SPEECHES. 9 

the principal departments of the Government of Japan, with 
their attaches." 

Mr. Blaine rises, and addressing the visitors, says : 

"Your Excellencies, on behalf of the House of Represen- 
tatives I welcome your imperial embassy to this hall. The 
reception which is thus extended to you so unanimously 
and so cordially by the members of this body is significant 
of the interest which our whole people feel in the rapidly 
developing relations between the Japanese empire and the 
American Republic. 

"The course of migration for the human race has for 
many centuries been steadily westward, a course always 
marked by conquest, and too often by rapine. Reaching 
the boundary of our continent, we encounter a returning 
tide from your country, setting eastward, seeking, not the 
trophies of war, but the more shining victories of peace; 
and these two currents of population appropriately meet 
and mingle on the shores of the great Pacific sea. 

"It will be my pleasure to present to your Excellencies, 
personally, the representatives of the people, and for them, 
as well as for myself, to assure you that during your stay 
at our capital you will at all times be welcome to the privi- 
leges and the courtesies of this floor." 

At no time during the many months that Mr. Blaine 
was before my eyes did my boyish admiration of him be- 
come greater than here and now, as he stands tall and com- 
manding, — an ideal American in form, figure, and speech, 
delivering a most fitting and graceful address of welcome 
on behalf of the American people and of Congress. The 



lo SFEAGUE'S SPEECHES. 

climax of interest comes with the response from the Chief 
Embassador. To me it seems very funny, and I am not 
sure but a good many old and dignified Senators laugh in 
their sleeves as this high and mighty ofificial, with voice 
pitched to a high G, sings off his response. Yet with all its 
funny sound there is something in it, and in the circum- 
stances under which it is spoken, that makes it very impres- 
sive. Would that I could repeat it to you as I heard it 
then, and can almost hear it now in imagination. I cannot 
even imitate the pitch of tone, and much less the wave-like 
movement of sound ; not a syllable of it do I remember, but 
the impression of it will never pass away. It was indeed a 
voice out of the past, an unknown, mysterious, weird sound. 
Immediately upon its close, with a great salam reaching 
nearly to the floor, the entire delegation makes its bow, re- 
sponded to by Mr. Blaine with a courteous and dignified 
dropping of the head. Then the interpreter takes up the 
speech of the Oriental prince and translates it ; and a more 
dainty and delightful piece of declamation I have never 
heard. I have gone to a good deal of trouble to find it, and 
I will repeat it for you : "Mr. Speaker and honorable mem- 
bers of the House of Representatives of the United States 
of America : — On behalf of the Embassadors of Japan, our 
sovereign, and the people whom we represent, we tender 
to you our sincere thanks and warmest friendship. We fully 
appreciate the distinguished honor which places us face to 
face in the presence of that mighty Power which rules the 
great American Republic. Governments are strong when 
built upon the hearts of an enlightened people. We come 



SPR AGUE'S SPEECHES. ii 

for enlightenment, and we gladly find it here. Journeying 
eastward from the empire of sunrise toward the sunrising, 
we daily behold a new sunrise beyond the one we before en- 
joyed ; new knowledge rises daily before us ; and when the 
completed journey shall have passed in review an encircled 
globe, we shall gather together our treasures of knowledge, 
remembering that, however we have advanced toward the 
sources of light, each onward move has revealed to us a 
further step beyond. The government of Japan already ap- 
preciates the value of an enlightened policy toward itself 
and all nations. And our united assurances on our return 
will confirm to the people at large the friendliness of feel- 
ing so frequently expressed heretofore, and now so gen- 
erously exhibited to this embassy. In the future an ex- 
tended commerce will unite our national interests in a thou- 
sand forms as drops of water will commingle, flowing from 
our several rivers to that common ocean that divides our 
countries. Let us express the hope that our national friend- 
ship may be as difficult to sunder or estrange, as to divide 
the once blended drops comprising our common Pacific 
ocean." 

How is that for an example of terseness and beauty of 
expression? I fear an American, on such an occasion, 
would have said more; no, not said more, but tried to say 
more, and would have succeeded in saying less. Speech- 
making ended, the Speaker of the House and President of 
the Senate descend from their places and are presented to 
the embassy; then Senators and Representatives, and at 
least one small boy, by virtue of ample paternal coat-tails, 



^'m 



12 SPR AGUE'S SPEECHES. 

each in turn shakes the hand in good American style of 
the almond-eyed visitors. This ceremony over, the embassy 
retires as it came, followed by the Senate, and the House 
resumes its routine labor as if there has not just occurred 
one of the most significant events of the century. General 
Garfield, who was then a Congressman, proposed, and Con- 
gress granted, an appropriation of $50,000 to defray the 
expense of entertaining this distinguished embassy. I 
think no one will charge this expenditure to the wasteful- 
ness of governmental legislation. 



FAREWELL, 

CLOSING TOAST AT THE i8g7 BANQUET OF THE 

COMMERCIAL LA W LEAGUE OF AMERICA 

A T PUT-IN-BA V, OHIO, July 30, iSgj. 

Mr. Toastmaster and friends, I am not going to inflict 
upon you an after-dinner speech. My main purpose is to 
read^ou a poem, — not one of my own composition, how- 
ever, but one that has been sent in to us by a member of the 
League who was unable to be present at this meeting, and 
who, desiring to contribute something to the success of this 
affair, has sent a few verses which you will agree with me 
are very appropriate. 

But before reading these lines to you, allow me to say a 
few words which are in the nature of words of parting. This 
is the third convention of the Commercial Law League of 
America, and I am more than ever of the opinion that the 
third time is the charm. I rejoice in the fact that in point 
of the character of the men who have attended this conven- 
tion, in the point of the wit and beauty of the ladies who 
have attended this convention, in the point of the harmony 
and good feeling, and in the point of the dignity of its pro- 
ceedings, this convention is head and shoulders above any- 
thing that the Commercial Law League of America has yet 
achieved. This League was born under a lucky star. Many 
of us have felt in months gone by that we were approaching 
the rocks, but our lucky star has guided us through all the 
narrow straits until it seems to me to-night that we have 

13 



14 SPR AGUE'S SPEECHES. 

reached clear sailing. That star never has shown so bril- 
liantly as it shines to-night, directly over the head of our 
loyal and talented friend from New York whom we have 
elected to the Presidency, Mr. John B. Green, An astron- 
omer was once asked to talk to a body of astronomers upon 
the beauties of astronomy. He took them out under the blue 
vault of heaven and pointing to the skies, exclaimed, "Look 
at the stars." My friends, during the coming year, when 
asked to tell about the beauties of the Commercial Law 
League of America, point to your newly elected officers, 
Green, Miller, Florance and Way, and simply say, look at 
the stars. I rejoice that out of the chaos of the first year or 
two of our organization we have been able to form a body of 
working members, — a well organized association. We have 
been standing, in times past, before the commercial world 
very much like Oedipus before the Sphinx. It asks us the 
question, what are we here for, and if we cannot answer it 
at once and intelligibly, it is ready to devour us. I am 
thankful that we have reached the point in our career as an 
association that we may go out to the world and tell them 
what we are here for, and that we are able to give a reason 
for the faith that is in us. I do not know how Brother 
Bartlett [an ex-president of the League, as was the speaker] 
has felt, but during my administration I felt very much like 
a man who tried to stand a corpse on its feet and said, when 
failing to do so, that he thought it was lacking something 
inside. I felt very much in my administration as though 
there was something lacking in the organization on the in- 
side, and that most of the year I was trying to hold up some- 
thing that was very much like "a stifif." I am glad to know, 



SPRAGUE'S SPEECHES. 15 

however, that the organization has reached a point where 
we can truly say that there is something on the inside. In 
the school books of the children and on the charts of every 
navigator is the great rock of Gibraltar. The summer's sun 
sends down upon it its melting rays, the winter's blasts beat 
about its peaks, the dews of heaven rest upon its brow, the 
waves wash against its face, the winds howl about its dreary 
wastes, and yet all of these vicissitudes of nature only 
serve to bring out in bolder relief the grand and awful 
strength of the rock of Gibraltar. Allow me to express the 
hope that the vicissitudes and changes, the conditions, fa- 
vorable and unfavorable, that must meet us as we go on 
with this organization, may only serve to bring out in 
clearer view the rugged strength of this organization, the 
rugged purposes with which it was formed. Down on the 
Ohio there is a great stretch of water that runs due east and 
west; at one point there arises a precipitous mountain of 
rock. An old river captain who had sailed along that way 
for some fifty years was dying, and on his death bed he 
asked that he might be given a niche in that wall wherein 
he might be buried, with his face towards the waters that he 
loved so much. My friends, I love this League so much 
that I want to express the hope that when my last journey 
has been made that I may be able to look back from the 
eternity to which I must sometime come and feel that I have 
been instrumental in forming this organization into some- 
thing that shall live and be of benefit to man. Now I will 
read to you the verses that have been sent us by George H. 
Humphreys, a member of the League from Rochester, 
New York : 



1 6 SFI^AGUE'S SPEECHES. 

Stretch out thine arms, glad Put-in-Bay, 
To greet the friends who come to-day 

From far and near; 

Fill full of cheer 
Their sojourn here, as three times blest 
They quaff the wine of perfect rest. 

Give to the breeze old Glory's stars, 
And three cheers for the gallant tars 

Who on this spot 

So bravely fought, 
And nailed the banner of the right 
Above the grasp of England's might. 

Unite in closer ties the band 

Who come at honor's high command 

To seek anew 

The just and true. 
With single eye to this alone. 
How best to give to each his own. 

No care here mingles with the breeze 
That bears from far o'er Summer seas 

From toil release, 

For sadness peace, 
And on its swift but silent wings 
New health and strength and vigor brings. 

May pleasant words like song of b'rds 
Refresh each heart, until is stirred 

To steadier fire 

The high desire 
To lighten every passing care 
And lift life's burden everywhere. 



SPR AGUE'S SPEECHES. 17 

May joy be with them all the week, 
And with them as they soon shall seek 

Their homes once more; 

Their gathering o'er, 
May grateful memory often say: 
How rich our feast in Put-in-Bay. 

And through the year as evermore 

Its waves' sweet cadence thrills the shore, 

So may God's voice 

Bid us rejoice; 
And so be ours, whate'er befall, 
The highest, "greatest thing of all." 

If there are any persons in this company who may rightly 
act the part of hosts, it is the members of the League who 
reside in Detroit, Toledo, Cleveland, Sandusky and Buffalo. 
I want, on behalf of those gentlemen, to say to you what 
the old Indian said to Marquette, who was exploring the 
region of the northern lakes. "I thank thee, black count, 
and thee, Frenchman, for taking so much pains to come and 
visit us. Never has the earth been so beautiful, nor the sun 
so bright as to-day. Never has our river been so calm or 
sc free from rocks, which your canoes have removed as they 
passed. Never has our tobacco had so fine a flavor, nor has 
our corn appeared so beautiful as you behold it to-day. 
Thou knowest the Great Spirit who has made it all. Thou 
speakest to him and hearest his word. Ask him to give us 
all life and health, and come and dwell with us again." 



THE DISEASE AND ITS REMEDY. 

ADDRESS BEFORE THE DETROIT CREDIT MEN'S ASSO- 
CIATION AT THEIR SECOND ANNUAL BANQUET 
A T DETROIT, MICH., JANUARY 20, iSg8. 

Mr. President and Gentlemen — I appreciate very thor- 
oughly the compliment you have bestowed upon me in in- 
viting me to share with his Honor, the Mayor of the city, 
the privilege of addressing you at this your annual meeting. 
I can conceive of no reason why I should have been singled 
out from among the many members of this association, 
some of v/hom are particularly pleasing talkers, and placed 
alongside of our distinguished friend, the Mayor, whose 
penchant for making felicitous speeches is a matter of com- 
mon knowledge, unless you were so impressed by the ex- 
aggerated reports that your representatives at the Kansas 
City convention brought you of my abilities as an orator, 
that you concluded that you would try to get a sample of it 
and put these reports to the proof. If this is the case, I am 
sorry that you must be disillusioned ; it was not any elo- 
quence of mine that "bagged the game" at Kansas City; it 
was rather the personal qualities of your delegation, their 
ability to stand where others fell, their good mixing qual- 
ities, their personal good looks and popularity — all these, in 
addition to the popular notion that Detroit is the hand- 
somest and most appropriate convention city in the world, 
brought the National Association of Credit Men in con- 
vention assembled, to choose this home of ours as their next 

abiding place. 

18 



SPR AGUE'S SPEECHES. 19 

I am not handicapped to-night by a subject, so what I 
shall say will be rather in the nature of a few remarks, than 
of a set speech. However, in order that you may carry 
away with you at least something as a recollection of what 
I say, I will confine myself to a more or less sensible dis- 
cussion of a subject that I shall name, "The Disease and Its 
Remedy." Without any further preliminaries I shall pro- 
ceed to diagnose the disease. It is my custom, at least once 
a year, to visit the little town in Ohio where I passed my 
boyhood. On one of my visits I was impressed with the 
change that had come about among the business men of the 
town within the past twenty years. I spoke to one of the 
oldest citizens of the place, of my surprise at the rapidity 
with which so startling a transformation had come about. 
Together, then, we went over the names of the merchants 
who had been, twenty years ago, the business men of the 
town, and asked ourselves the question. Where are they? I 
was never so impressed with the truth of the remark, that 
so far as money and property go to make success, failure 
is the rule among men, and success the lonesome exception. 
The leading dry goods merchant when I was a boy, a man 
estimated then to be worth $75,000 to $100,000, was driving 
a dray; another, at that time a successful dry goods mer- 
chant, was a bent and feeble old man doing menial service 
in the dry goods store of the son of the man who was driv- 
ing the dray. Another, who once conducted the leading 
general store of the county, the director of a bank, the 
financial pillar of the leading church, is now tending alone 
a little store patronized only by a few old patrons. Another, 



20 SPR AGUE'S SPEECHES. 

the leading hardware merchant, is now, in his old age, beat- 
ing out tin pails and cups in a little tin shop over the store 
where he used to sell more in a day than he now sells in six 
months. Up and down both sides of the main street we 
went in our search for the merchants of twenty years ago, 
and of all who had died in the meantime the great majority 
of them had died insolvent, while of all who still lived less 
than five per cent of them were still in business for them- 
selves and solvent. This, too, in a conservative country 
town, surrounded by a fine agricultural district and apart 
from the follies and extravagance of city life. 

Will you tell me why it is ; will you blame it to the condi- 
tions of trade and the times? This will not do, for I could 
show you that within the last twenty years that country has 
enjoyed, for a large part of the time, a fair degree of pros- 
perity. I would show you that in that community the court 
records are almost absolutely clear of insolvency proceed- 
ings, assignments for benefit of creditors, etc., and yet 
throughout the entire period merchants have come and 
gone, succeeding for a time, but in almost every instance 
coming down to an old age of disappointment and want. 
I do not need to go so far away to make a diagnosis of the 
disease. I came to Detroit thirteen years ago. The Wood- 
ward avenue of thirteen years ago is far from the Wood- 
ward avenue of to-day; not so much in the number and 
character of its business men as in their personnel. I do 
not care, in this presence, to name over the merchants then 
prominent in business on Woodward avenue and now no 
longer a factor in business circles, and only remembered 



SPR AGUE'S SPEECHES. 21 

for the debts they made. You can recall them. The aver- 
age business life of Woodward avenue merchants, could it 
be definitely known, would no doubt astonish us. Failures 
on Woodward avenue are not to be charged so much to 
so-called hard times, for they have been most frequent and 
most disastrous in times that have generally been con- 
sidered as prosperous. Once in a while it will do us good 
to dip into history a little for facts, for men are much the 
same now as they ever have been, and the same causes are 
operating to bring about effects to-day that operated fifty 
years ago. 

In 1840 Gen. Dearborn, who had been collector at the 
port of Boston for nearly twenty years, stated that after an 
extensive acquaintance with business men and having long 
been an attentive observer of the course of events in the 
mercantile community, he was satisfied that among one 
hundred merchants and traders not more than three ever 
acquire independence. In the same year a great anti- 
quarian in Boston said, that, forty years before, he had 
taken a memorandum of every person doing business on 
Long Wharf, and that after the lapse of forty years, five 
only of the one hundred remained ; they had all in that time 
failed, or died destitute of property. The Massachusetts 
Bank, of Boston, gave out a statement that of one thousand 
accounts which they had opened, on starting business, only 
six remained after forty years ; that of the remainder, nearly 
all who had opened accounts had either failed, or died 
destitute of property. The president of the bank, in making 
this statement, said: "Bankruptcy is almost as certain as 



22 SPRAGUE'S SPEECHES. 

death. There seems to be little escape from it, and he is 
a fortunate man who fails young." A contributor to the 
Merchants' Magazine, that some years ago was published 
in New York, said that up to that time but one eminent 
merchant had ever continued in active business in the city 
of New York to the close of a long life without undergoing 
bankruptcy or a suspension of payments. From records 
kept in Boston during periods of twenty to forty years, it 
is asserted that of every hundred persons who commenced 
business in Boston ninety-five, at least, died poor. Glance 
for a moment at the statistics of bankruptcy under the uni- 
form bankruptcy law of 1841, which was in force but thir- 
teen months. The number of applicants for relief under 
that law were 33,739; the number of creditors returned, 
1,049,603 ; the amount of debts stated, $440,934,615 ; the 
valuation of the property surrendered, $43,697,307. On this 
showing ten cents should have been paid on every dollar 
due. It may interest you to know that on the winding up 
of the estates the following dividends were paid: In the 
southern district of New York an average of a cent on the 
dollar, in the northern district of New York thirteen and 
two-thirds cents, the largest in any jurisdiction; in Con- 
necticut, a half a cent on a dollar ; in Mississippi, six cents 
on every $1,000; in Maine, a half a cent on every $100; in 
Michigan and Iowa, one-fourth of a cent on every $100 ; and 
so on, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Alabama paying nothing. 
Here is the enormous sum of $400,000,000 and over, lost 
by 1,049,000 merchants, who were supposed to be engaged 
in proper and legitimate business. Some twenty years ago 



SPRAGUE'S SPEECHES. 23 

my father purchased the bankrupt stock, including books of 
account, of one of the leading stores of southeastern Ohio, 
which in its day had done a flourishing business. Among 
the books of account was one that particularly interested me 
as a boy. In it was given a long list of names of persons 
who owed accounts to the store, which accounts had been 
presumably charged to profit and loss, and opposite each 
name was some remark in pencil as to what had become of 
the debtor. These remarks read something as follows : 
"busted," "gone to Neb.," "dead," "killed by the cars, left 
nothing," "busted," and among other evidences of disgust 
and despair on the part of the bookkeeper were quite a job 
lot of names after which was the expressive statement, 
"gone to hell." There was once published in Cincinnati a 
journal called Cist's Cincinnati Advertiser, the publisher, 
Mr. Cist, being the statistician of the city. He at one time 
prepared a list of the principal active business men who 
were in trade twenty years before in Cincinnati. Opposite 
each name he briefly related what had become of the person. 
I have now before me the list. It reads as follows : "No. i, 
broke ; resumed business ; has since left Cincinnati. No. 2, 
broke ; resides in Indiana. No. 3, broke ; now engaged in 
collecting accounts. No. 4, died. No. 5, broke; now cap- 
tain of a steamboat. No. 6, left merchandising to put up 
pork, which business he also quit in time to save his bacon; 
independent in circumstances. No. 7, dead. No. 8, broke; 
resides in St. Louis. No. 9, firm ; one of the partners dead, 
the other out of business ; both insolvent. No. 10, part- 
ners ; both dead. No. 1 1, partners ; broke ; one now a book- 
keeper, the other dead. No. 12, became embarrassed and 



24 SPR AGUE'S SPEECHES. 

swallowed poison. No. 13, a firm; broke. No. 14, a firm; 
broke ; one of the partners died a common sot, the other left 
the city. No. 15, in the penitentiary. No. 16, now a clerk; 
left Cincinnati after becoming intemperate. No. 17, broke; 
drowned himself in the Ohio. No. 18, broke and removed 
to Toledo. No. 20, out of business ; broke three times ;" and 
so on. The list comprehends some four hundred business 
men and only five of them were still in business after twenty 
years. 

Such is mercantile success ! I think, after this mournful 
recital, I ought to pause long enough for us all to sing the 
chorus of that old song, "Let us all be unhappy together." 
What is the matter with a mercantile career, anyhow? It is 
a common and popular thing nowadays to decry the shyster 
lawyer; what about the shyster merchant? For every un- 
successful lawyer I can produce a dozen unsuccessful mer- 
chants ; for every weak and sinful member of the bar I will 
produce his match from among the merchants. The fact 
is, the world is full of incompetents. The disease is not one 
that affects one class or several classes to the exclusion of 
others. It is a general disease that requires patient and 
long-continued treatment, and I doubt very much whether 
in our day the patient is growing any better. I am not one 
of those who believe that business men are any less honest 
to-day than they were fifty years ago. I do believe, how- 
ever, that the standard of morality in trade is far from what 
it ought to be, and that until it improves materially we may 
expect to see little improvement in the condition of the 
patient. I believe that the credit men of the country have it 



SPR AGUE'S SPEECHES. 25 

in their power to produce remarkable results in the direction 
of more honest and more capable business men and 
methods. A large proportion of the men who fail in busi- 
ness fail from injudicious buying ; another large proportion 
fail from extravagance in store management or in home 
life, or in both ; another proportion, not small, fail because 
of injurious habits ; another proportion fail from venturing 
into lines of business in which they are unskilled ; while 
others fail from speculation. Conservative credit men and 
capable mercantile reporting agencies have it in their power 
to work such a change in business conditions and business 
character as cannot be accomplished by all the State Legis- 
latures in Christendom. We cannot legislate men into hon- 
esty; we cannot legislate them into economy; we cannot 
legislate them into a wise use of their money ; we can, how- 
ever, as individuals, stand between them and the things they 
would do, and prevent them. The law may say, that a man 
shall not enter my house at night and carry away my 
valuables without my consent. But the fellow may not 
know the law, or he may think it unjust, or may be viciously 
indifferent to it. All the law and all the statute books in the 
world will not be so effective in preventing his stealing from 
me as am I myself, standing in the door with a revolver in 
my hand, barring his approach. Make all the laws you 
please on the subjects of assignments, insolvencies, chattel 
mortgages, attachments, etc., etc., load your statute books 
until they groan with the weight and the severity of your 
collection laws, and you don't begin to cure the disease so 
long as there are credit men willing to supply the merchant, 



26 SPRAGUE'S SPEECHES. 

whatever his character and regardless of the insolvency of 
his estate. I believe thoroughly in credit — I have to use it 
myself — but I do not believe in it when it keeps afloat a raft 
of irresponsible merchants who, if their debts were paid, 
would not have cash enough to buy their next meal, whose 
stores are the "bargain stores" of the city, demoralizing 
trade, and driving respectable, honorable and responsible 
merchants into distress, and finally failing and throwing 
upon the markets trainloads of merchandise at less than 
manufacturers' cost. 

How many of our merchants, were they closed out to- 
day, could pay one hundred cents on the dollar? Are there 
not many of them, indeed, carrying large stocks and doing 
a big business, who, at a safe estimate, are insolvent and 
irresponsible? I venture to say there are merchants in this 
city to-day who are getting goods on credit from jobbers 
who expect these same merchants to fail, but who are tak- 
ing the chances that they will get the money before failure 
comes, or who hope, possibly, in the event of failure, they 
will be protected. Not many months ago I went out for a 
stroll after night with my wife (very proper, you will say !), 
and passed the house of a merchant who had the day before 
committed suicide. The hour was ten o'clock. Sitting 
upon the curbstone in front of the house and standing under 
the shelter of the trees were some twenty or thirty persons, 
all of them lawyers and credit men ; all seeking at this un- 
canny hour, in the presence of the very corpse itself, to 
interview the widow and learn "where they were at," I 
stopped and talked with one of these gentlemen, with whom 



SPRAGUE'S SPEECHES. 27 

I was acquainted. To one of them, who seemed to be a 
chief mourner, and whose goods and money to the extent 
of some $20,000 were slipping from his grasp, I said, 'T am 
glad of it. It treats your house right. You had every 
means of knowing what was coming. I do not know what 
the mercantile agency report was, but if it was not such as 
to warn you, the agency ought to be drummed out of town, 
for every citizen with his eyes and ears open has known for 
some time that some day, and that, soon, a tremendous 
failure was coming. You deliberately closed your eyes and 
your ears and let your property go." I think I have scolded 
about this before in the columns of my paper, and I can't 
help repeating what I there said, that we, as credit men, 
have much to blame ourselves for, and that in applying 
remedies to others we should be sure that we don't need 
them ourselves. 

What is to bring about a better class of merchants, fewer 
failures, more successful business, a sounder condition of 
trade? Laws can't do it; overproduction and overpushing 
of goods upon the market can't do it; a cheapening of 
commodities can't do it; politics can't do it; a system of 
bankruptcy can't do it ; I know of nothing that can produce 
the result so speedily, so completely, as agitation ; public 
sentiment; education. What brought the abolition of 
slavery? Agitation. When Wendell Phillips struck the 
keynote of anti-slavery sentiment he was hooted and howled 
from house to house in Boston, the very center of freedom ; 
but agitation, constant, heroic, personal, finally swept the 
whole north and at last the union itself for freedom for the 



28 SPRAGUE'S SPEECHES. 

black race. Coming down from the sublime to the ridicu- 
lous, I give you a marked evidence of the result of agitation 
when I refer to the crusade against high hats in the theaters. 
Agitation alone has done it. Legislatures have sought to 
legislate the nuisance out of existence, but public opinion 
has done the work — ^public opinion, expressed in the public 
press, on the rostrum, in the street, and in the home. Agi- 
tation in favor of reform in credit methods is the main pur- 
pose of the National Association of Credit Men. This 
splendid organization, springing suddenly into existence 
at the call of a few earnest, far-seeing men, has already been 
an influence for good, and it is bound to be a tremendous 
force in making better men and bringing about better 
methods. Credit men singly can do much here and there 
in preventing disasters to character and business ; combined, 
they can revolutionize the business world. They ought to 
represent, do represent, I believe, the strength and con- 
servatism of the business world. Direct that strength and 
conservatism to right ends and future generations will look 
back upon no more important factor in the business life of 
the latter part of this century than the banding together of 
these men for protection against imposition, injustice and 
fraud and for bringing about mutual improvement and re- 
forms in business methods. The watchword of this organi- 
zation should be "Agitate." The printing press should be 
employed night and day in spreading before the people 
words of counsel and warning. The daily and weekly news- 
papers and the trade journals should be used as the good 
right arm of the movement. For whatever we may say of it 



SPR AGUE'S SPEECHES. 29 

on its less potent and less gracious side, the press is the 
guardian of public morals, the defender of justice, the great 
and mighty engine of civilization. Right well, I am glad 
to say, is this association meeting the ends of its organiza- 
tion by agitation. 

I venture to say that no trade organization has ever made 
upon the minds of business men a more profound impres- 
sion of its usefulness than the Association of Credit Men. 
Not only is the movement endowed with the enthusiastic 
support of the leading houses of the United States ; not only 
is it blessed with the vigorous and influential assistance of 
the powerful and gifted trade press of the country, but the 
realization seems to have been had that the peculiar work 
that is being performed is singularly adapted to this associa- 
tion alone. 

With uniform statement blanks, as a source of education, 
and a custom insuring closer relations between debtor and 
creditor, and a protection and advantage to both; with a 
uniform trade inquiry form as an incentive to more certain 
trade confidence ; with a business literature department hav- 
ing a policy and system insuring the dissemination of the 
soundest advice ; with the extension of a powerful influence 
upon our commercial agencies guaranteeing a more perfect 
and reliable service; with the agitation, looking to correc- 
tion, of such abuses as the use of local checks by out-of- 
town merchants, fake advertising, and excessive and un- 
reasonable dating and discounts, and with the successful 
operation of the department devoted to the investigation 
and prosecution of fraudulent failures, there can be no 



30 SPR AGUE'S SPEECHES. 

question as to the importance of our association, the prac- 
ticability of its undertakings, and the grandeur of its in- 
fluence. Men of profound experience are contributing to 
its literature and hundreds and thousands of newspapers 
and periodicals are placing these words before the eyes of 
their readers ; thus gently, gradually, and yet surely, is the 
process of education going on. No credit man should look 
upon this movement in a selfish spirit. He should rather 
be thankful that it is within his power to lend some aid, 
however small, to the furtherance of this great project, 
whose purpose and whose result we can no more now calcu- 
late than could we judge of the mighty influence of Wm. E. 
Gladstone, from the knowledge of the mere fact that on De- 
cember 29th, 1807, there was born to the wife of one John 
Gladstone, a son. I personally am proud that Detroit was 
present and took an active part in the organization of the 
National Association of Credit Men. I am proud that our 
city represents an integral part in this great movement. I 
am proud for my city, that among all the credit men of all 
the cities that I have met personally and in conventions, 
none impress me as more intelligent and more capable than 
those of my home city. I am further proud that in the sum- 
mer of 1898 we shall be permitted to extend our hands in 
greeting to one of the most distinguished bodies of business 
men which it has ever been the proud privilege of this 
splendid city to entertain. Let us show to this represent- 
ative body of business men that what our local association 
lacks in numbers we make up in the height and the depth, 
the length and the breadth, of our hospitality, and in the 



SPRAGUE'S SPEECHES. 31 

meantime and always, let us endeavor to assist as best we 
can in extending the power, influence, and usefulness of this 
great brotherhood to the end that the utmost of the bless- 
ings which it has the power to confer may be vouchsafed to 
all its members, and, through them, to the world at large. 



THE UNKNOWN LAND. 

The unknown land of this day and age of the world must, 
you say, be a very unimportant and uninteresting study. 
The world's ships have girdled the globe and checkered its 
seas with the paths of commerce ; the world's missionaries 
and explorers have penetrated its forests and sandy wastes ; 
men of iron nerve have carried the chain of discovery far 
out into the frozen night of the polar seas and brought back 
word that beyond is but the uninhabitable stretches of ice 
and snow; intrepid spirits have braved the hostile climates 
and races of the African continent and returned to lay the 
riches of the tropics at the feet of an admiring world. You 
admit that here and there upon the earth's surface are dark 
spots unexplored, but you say they are so insignificant in 
comparison with what faced the world of the fifteenth and 
earlier centuries that for us, practically speaking, there is 
no unknown land ; that our geographies are now complete ; 
that here and there we may have to change the line of a 
river or mark here a lake, or there erect a mountain peak, 
but that never again shall we add new pages for lands or 
continents now unknown. To a large extent, perhaps, this 
is true; I say perhaps, for it will not do for man ever 
again to be dogmatic on points of geography any the more 
than on points of science, philosophy, and reHgion, in the 
face of the revelations of the past fifty years. The most we 
can say, yes, the most that the best and wisest of men can 
say, is that so far as we can now see, things are thus and so. 

32 



SPR AGUE'S SPEECHES. 33 

Never in the history of man has there been so much break- 
ing of idols as in this day in which we Hve, We ridicule 
old-time notions of the earth, her motions, her functions, 
her relations to the stars, and to the universe in general, old- 
time theories of light and sound and heat and motion and 
life, old-time rules and practices and fashions of individual, 
family and social life, old-time theories of gods and devils, 
and demons and mysteries, yes, even old-time beliefs and 
hopes and faiths, — and yet upon this same great rock of 
discovery and modern research are our own pet theories, 
our own well-trenched philosophies, our own ever sacred 
dogmas, and heaven-born creeds, being shattered before our 
very eyes. So that, standing in the midst of the whirl of 
these last years of the nineteenth century, one may well 
turn the pages of his book of knowledge with a hurried 
hand, for ere he is well through with them their wisdom has 
vanished away. "Whether there be prophesies they shall 
fail, whether there be tongues they shall cease, whether there 
be knowledge it shall vanish away." To quote from one 
who has recently asked and answered so well the question, 
what is the summum bonum, the greatest thing in the 
world: "The wisdom of the ancients ! where is it? It is 
wholly gone. A schoolboy to-day knows more than Sir Isaac 
Newton knew ; his knowledge has vanished away. You put 
yesterday's newspaper into the fire, its knowledge has van- 
ished away; you buy the old editions of the great encyclo- 
pedias for a few pence ; their knowledge has vanished away ; 
see how the coach has been superseded by the use of 
steam; see how electricity has superseded that, and swept 



34 SPRAGUE'S SPEECHES. 

an hundred almost new inventions into oblivion. One of 
the greatest living authorities, Sir Wm. Thompson, said 
the other day, 'The steam engine is passing away.' Whether 
there be knowledge, it shall vanish away. At every work 
shop you will see in the back yard a heap of old iron, a few 
wheels, a few levers, a few cranks, broken and eaten with 
rust. Twenty years ago that was the pride of the city, men 
flocked in from the country to see the great invention. Now 
it is superseded, its day is done. And all the boasted 
science and philosophy of this day will soon be o'er. But 
yesterday, in the University of Edinburgh, the greatest 
figure in the faculty was Sir James Simpson, the discoverer 
of chloroform. The other day his successor and nephew. 
Prof. Simpson, was asked by the librarian of the University 
to go to the library and pick out the books on his subject 
that were no longer needed, and his reply to the librarian 
was this : 'Take every text-book that is more than ten years 
old, and put it down in the cellar.' Sir James Simpson was a 
great authority only a few years ago; men came from all 
parts of the earth to consult him, and almost the whole 
teaching of that time is consigned by the science of to-day 
to oblivion." 

In every branch of science the same is true ; and never 
was this more true than in this year of our Lord one thou- 
sand eight hundred and ninety. Every pulse-beat to-night 
is a leap forward into an unknown land; every inspiration 
fills our lungs with a clearer and purer air blowing fresh 
from mountain and plain and river of which our maps con- 
tain not even a suggestion. 



SPR AGUE'S SPEECHES. 35 

Are we moving fast? Yes, terribly fast; men and things 
go down in the mad rush, their hands still outstretched to 
the future, their bodies bruised and beaten under the iron 
heel of irresistible progress. You have read of the wild 
rush of humanity into the far West in the days of the gold 
excitement and a similar exhibition on a smaller scale into 
the newly opened territory of a western State. Great cara- 
vans stealing across the prairies and gathering on the con- 
fines of the promised beyond — faces expectant — courage 
fired — hearts aglow — bodies nerved; the word comes and 
then the mad shout of greeting, the gallop of steeds, the 
rocking to and fro of the great vans, the crack of the rifle, 
the shout of victory, mingled with the cry of defeat, — a 
terrible race for the prize. 

I remember well a picture I once saw when but a lad. Its 
impress has remained upon my mind amidst the changes of 
years. Beneath it is written, "Westward the star of 
empire takes its way." In the foreground is the summit of 
a rocky range ; a group of emigrants ; an old man, his staff 
dropped from his hand and his tottering form scarcely 
lifted above the earth ; a mother clasping her babe to her 
breast, her eyes uplifted in a prayer for courage ; and above 
them a young man, his face aglow with enthusiasm and the 
blood of youth, peering eagerly forward into the beautiful 
pastures of the new country that lies stretched beyond as 
far as the eye can reach, and beckoning to his disheartened 
companions in eager joy at the discovery of the long- 
delayed end of their journey ; while back over the path they 
have traversed stretches the long line of white-covered vans 
toiling up the mountain. 



36 SFE AGUE'S SPEECHES. 

A picture of frequent occurrence in the border States and 
a truthful representation of the journey into the unknown 
land of which we men and women of this civilization are a 
part. 

Some of us are away out in the front of this great move- 
ment, some of us are content to be toiling in well-beaten 
tracks, some of us are scarcely to be seen in this picture, 
our outfit so mean, our speed so slow, our ambition and 
zeal so insignificant; away back on the horizon, our forms 
are scarcely distinguishable in the dimness of its coloring. 

It is for but few to be the explorers in the unknown land 
— for the great world of men it is left to follow after. Once 
in a while one of us "makes believe" to venture a little be- 
yond the crowd, and coming back we say, "there is nothing 
new under the sun." There may be a few modifications and 
improvements of the old, a few combinations of existing ele- 
ments not yet made, but after all we have about solved the 
problem and reached the end ; we build our golden calves 
and fall down to worship them until some Moses descend- 
ing from the mountain and thundering in our ears the di- 
vine command, "Thou shalt have no other Gods before Me," 
hurls our idols from their pedestals and leads us one day's 
march farther from the Egypt of our bondage. 

This great body of humanity is moving in well-defined 
columns of attack, each marshalled by leaders and well dis- 
ciplined ; there are the scouts, — the men who are to-day way 
out on the front of the movement — quick eyed, clear headed, 
well equipped, brave, strong, fired with zeal, experienced, 



SPR AGUE'S SPEECHES. 37 

inured to hardships, accustomed to difficulties, fertile in re- 
sources : Painters, musicians, architects, machinists, elec- 
tricians, astronomers, navigators, philosophers, statesmen, 
physicians, teachers, preachers. Following at a long dis- 
tance comes the great body of humanity, but ere they reach 
the field they find the ashes of many a camp fire and the 
land no longer unknown. Then there is the great rear- 
guard, here and there organized into bodies, but more gen- 
erally scattered ; occasionally mutinous and yet following 
at greater or less interval the main body, — the camp fol- 
lowers ; men who live upon the past, who create and see 
nothing new, who assume an icy indifiference to progress, 
who sneer at every new revelation, whose motto is, "not 
seen, not believed," whose pet phrase is that blear-eyed 
blasphemy, "there is nothing new under the sun," as if we 
had finally got a tapeline about God's universe and had its 
exact measurement. No more false and dangerous idea 
ever took refuge in words. You meet these dyspeptic 
philosophers at every turn, unable to comprehend the mag- 
nificent movements of mind which have characterized their 
times. They are found in politics, and know nothing of 
state-craft beyond the successful drawing of a salary, look- 
ing after their fences, or the selfish interests of a back-woods 
constituency ; they are found in the pulpit and know noth- 
ing of the true religion beyond their vain desire to crowd 
the eternal God and His Universe into a two-by-four inter- 
pretation of His written word ; they are found in the pro- 
fessions of law and medicine ; you meet them in the schools 
of art and in the walks of business — this great rear-guard. 



38 SPR AGUE'S SPEECHES. 

Rather would I be in the ranks of the ignorant dweller upon 
the banks of the Indus, seeing and knowing nothing of this 
great warfare, than that, face to face with the splendid rev- 
elations of the possibilities of the human mind and the won- 
drous resources of the unknown land, I should stand like a 
dog baying at the moon. 

A few years since we were startled by scientific men tell- 
ing us that there was indisputable evidence of the existence 
of man in the quaternary period of the earth's history. Men 
went to their Bibles and read the first chapter of Genesis 
and shook their heads, and now they tell us that there is 
evidence of man in the tertiary and that he antedates the 
glacial period. If this be true, and we have little ground to 
dispute it, either from the standpoint of probabilities or the 
standpoint of the Bible, the history of the race is indefinitely 
prolonged. According to some authorities some twenty to 
one hundred millions of years have elapsed since man be- 
came a separate and distinct creation. With this view of the 
length of time in which man has been on the earth, how 
infinitely slow the progress in the centuries of the past! 
A thousand years ago a not over-wise prophet might readily 
have argued the exact condition of the race a century later. 
But how rapid in these times are the wheels of progress 
turning ! What means this rapid acceleration of movement? 
Is the force that is drawing us on some unknown energy 
which, like the force of gravity, acting inversely as the 
square of the distance, is rapidly drawing us as a race to the 
perihelion of our existence? Where is the prophet who, 
fifty years ago, could give even the roughest outline of the 



SFEAGUE'S SPEECHES. 39 

present? How much that is now the common experience 
and blessing of the race was known ten years ago? The av- 
erage of human wisdom among the civilized people of the 
globe to-day is above the point reached by the bright in- 
tellects of an hundred years ago, and fifty years hence that 
man who compasses by his learning the full measure of the 
wisdom of our wisest men may be, — yes, doubtless will be 
counted an ignorant man. 

It is impossible for any one of us with equanimity, no 
matter how far advanced in intelligence, how unerring in 
sight, or intrepid in spirit, to go far into the unknown land. 
Venture out but a little way and our minds are confused, 
our senses reel with the mass of strange and startling facts 
and phenomena that surround us. 

We are told that Columbus, standing upon the prow of 
his vessel, surrounded by a mutinous crew, saw before him 
the land of promise in the occasional flitting of strange birds 
across the sky, strange odors borne upon the breeze and 
strange objects that floated past. And so even those of us 
who give little, if any, thought to the progress of events can 
dimly see the outlines of a new land in the mass of new and 
varying phenomena that daily pass before our eyes. 

The progress of science during the past few years is 
likened in my mind to a midnight ride upon a train among 
the mountains, — a sense of comfort and security within, an 
enjoyment of the novelty of the situation, and yet the pres- 
ence of an awful dread as one peers out into the darkness 
and into the mysterious depths over which he is borne. Is 
the track all right ahead? Is the engineer trustworthy? 



40 SPRAGUE'S SPEECHES. 

Are we not going too fast? Why this stop — this sudden 
starting? See that swaying lantern ahead! Is it a signal 
of danger? Who has not had these sensations? 

So this strange ride which science is taking us to-day; 
awful in some of its aspects, over dizzy heights which we 
dare not contemplate. A Morse ahead with his lantern ; we 
catch his signal and are off; we pass him as he stands by 
the roadside ; and with a length of wire to-day eighty times 
the length of the equator, the telegraph is no longer won- 
derful. Another lantern shines out ahead in the darkness; 
Edison is signaling, and we are off up the mountains as 
passive and as impotent to guide or direct in this unknown 
land as a sleeping babe. This lantern passed, and the human 
voice is carried by an invisible energy for thousands of 
miles, and the telephone is no longer wonderful. Another 
signal left behind in the night, and the microphone is a 
thing of yesterday. Another, and electricity is stored and 
measured. Another, and the phonograph has ceased to be 
a wonder. Another, and, by an unnamed instrument, we 
shall see one another face to face although separated in per- 
son by miles of river and mountain and plain. 

What is this subtle thing we name "energy"? We speak 
of it as the one established fact of the universe, but do we 
know anything more of it than did Sir Isaac Newton, who 
admitted as to gravity that he could not conceive how one 
body could act on another without some physical connec- 
tion between them. Tait in his Properties of Matter sums 
up the latest results in almost the identical words of New- 
ton : "In fact, the cause of gravitation remains undiscov- 
ered." Whence came it? You cannot make something out 



SPRAGUE'S SPEECHES. 41 

of nothing. You cannot create energy although you can 
transform it. Science demands something even back of this. 
There must be a still deeper sub-stratum than gravity, and 
■heat, and light, and electricity, to account for solar heat 
being kept up for the time required by geology; for the 
energy which acts from atom to atom ; for the varying in- 
clinations of the axes of rotation of the different bodies of 
the solar system; for the motion of the so-called runaway 
stars. Who is there to explain the force that lies back of the 
phenomena of animal magnetism, of hypnotism, of cata- 
lepsy, of somnambulism, of hallucinations, of dreams? 
And what can we say of love and hate, of joy and sorrow, 
if under given circumstances, as has been demonstrated, 
they can be transformed into one another by the aid of the 
magnet? Did the man who wrote the Shakespearean plays 
speak better than he knew when he said, "We are such 
things as dreams are made of"? Do you say this leads to 
materialism, if conscience and all the phenomena of mind 
and soul is traced to the subtle workings of a physical 
energy? If by materialism you mean the denial of a wise 
and beneficent great first cause in whom all the phenomena 
of the physical and so-called spiritual universe has its be- 
ginning and must of necessity have its end ; if you mean by 
materialism the religion of the agnostic to whom faith is 
but a mockery, I answer, no ; I believe that man was made 
in the image of his Maker in a higher and purer sense than 
as commonly thought, in that, although born of the very 
elements of the grosser world about him, he has outstripped 
in the race all other forms of created beings and will find 



42 SFRAGUE'S SPEECHES. 

his true mission in an absolute unity in knowledge and 
power and experience and conditions with the God that 
created him. 

Look through the giant telescopes of to-day and amid the 
solemn and awful mysteries of the universe, you will ex- 
claim : "Oh the depths of God ! how unsearchable are His 
judgments, ana how inscrutable are His ways." 

Stand among the accumulated volumes of sand and 
gravel and coal and rock and read the story of the unmeas- 
ured ages that stretch out before you ; go into the field of 
modern philosophy, see evolution, like a key to the uni- 
verse, unlocking its mysteries to our wondering gaze. We 
stagger at its suggestions ; we turn away from its conclu- 
sions ; we grasp our creeds and our philosophies and re- 
ligions and press them before our eyes in fear that we may 
see something of the unsearchable riches of God; we ask 
ourselves, trembling at the question. What may not evolu- 
tion do? 

It has proven the continuity of law, the conservation 
of forces, the unity of matter ; it has found a thousand miss- 
ing links and proven genus and species but diverging lines 
of one primal organism. And man? May he not be an 
exception? Yes, he may. But in this unknown land we 
will not say he is. I do not give up one particle of my 
faith in God and my belief in His word, but I may have to 
admit that in man's interpretation of God's written revela- 
tion, man may be mistaken just as in man's interpretation 
of nature, which is God's unwritten revelation, man has 
been stumbling along like a blind man and a fool since the 



SFRAGUE'S SPEECHES. 43 

world began. With the learned bishop of the Anglican 
church, I can sooner believe that God, in the beginning, set 
his impress upon the universe once for all and sent it whirl- 
ing into space to perform its mission than that from time to 
time he has interposed to change its course or alter its plans 
or create new forces or elements or beings. Infinitely more 
wonderful and more in accord with an all-wise Creator, the 
view into the unknown land of science and philosophy 
which reduces the great mass of varying phenomena to one 
mighty energy working by fixed laws throughout the uni- 
verse, holding in its grasp the countless worlds of space and 
the tiniest atom of the invisible air about us ; and that as a 
masterpiece to crown his work, out of the all-pervading 
workings of this law through countless years, should come 
one endowed with the image of his Maker and capable of 
limitless improvement. And if future generations learn 
that mind is but another name for that all-pervading energy 
which lies as a sub-stratum beneath all the mysterious phe- 
nomena which we know as light, heat, gravity, electricity, 
atomic energy, and chemical affinity, and what not, may 
they not come to look upon some of our notions of mind and 
spirit which we have built into our systems of belief and 
which are founded surely and safely, as we have every 
reason to believe with our present light, upon God's writ- 
ten revelation to man, as erroneous as the belief of our 
fathers that the sun revolved about the earth, which error, 
foolish as it may seem to us, they read as truth not only 
in nature, but in the word of God itself. 



THE MUSIC OF THE FUTURE. 

In music, what Mendelssohn and Mozart happened upon 
by dint of genius and a sort of inspiration, as we may say, 
we have now reduced to an accurate system, so that by a 
reasonable amount of study and practice the gifted genius 
of to-day may begin almost where they left off, and with 
the splendid improvement in instruments nothing in music 
now is impossible. The gifted performer of the future 
may become a veritable Orpheus to move rocks and stones 
with his melody. One thing certain, the music of the 
future will be human. By human, I mean music of the 
heart, not a clash of meaningless sounds appealing to a 
semi-barbarous ear ; neither a beating of two sticks as 
among primitive tribes ; nor yet a crash of brass and iron 
and sheepskin of a Gilmore's band, but the delicate ex- 
pressions of tne best emotions of the heart, appealing 
thereto, not by dint of force, but through the avenues of 
experience and memory and imagination, — a reproduction 
of human hope and fear and sorrow and joy which is the 
grandest and the best purpose of the art. Art in its per- 
fection will be natural, and as the natural becomes more 
and more god-like so will music. We love music only as 
it expresses something else that we love. Artificial stand- 
ards and ideals of art will be from time to time set up and 
followed, but the music of the future which will accompany 
the advanced genius of the coming man will shake off 

44 



SPRAGUE'S SPEECHES. 45 

these shackles of a semi-barbarous taste, and rise to its 
true sphere, which is the simple and faithful imitation of 
man's best thought and feeling. Why is it that the "Home, 
Sweet Home" of a Patti is more exquisitely beautiful than 
the grandest oratorio that was ever sung? It is because, 
stripped of all environment of clashing cymbals and blaz- 
ing trumpets, there is that in the very simplicity and per- 
fect heartiness (I think of no other word to express it) 
of the tone so clothing the sentiment, that it sets vibrating 
within our souls the very deepest emotions. 

I imagine I catch a little of the spirit of that music of 
the future, — that human, heart music in the tones of a 
song which floats down to me through the fourteen years 
which have elapsed since I heard it on the Centennial 
grounds at Philadelphia in 1876. It was the night of 
Pennsylvania day, the greatest day of the Exposition, 
when, packed in one great swaying mass, there stood hun- 
dreds of thousands of men and women, the greatest com- 
pany of people that had ever, up to that time, assembled 
in one spot upon the American Continent. They were 
waiting in the darkness for the beginning of the pyrotechnic 
display which had been promised for the evening. 

All eyes were directed to the northward, expectant and 
eager, and yet no sign of a rocket or candle appeared 
against the starry background on which we gazed. All 
around us is darkness and silence; hut hark! Away off to 
the west, scarcely audible, comes a low murmur like the 
first rustle of leaves in the forest on the approach of the 



46 SPRAGUE'S SPEECHES. 

storm; nearer it comes, rising and falling, higher and 
higher, like great billows toward the land, until, surging all 
about us, from an hundred thousand throats, not boisterous, 
but deep and with an indescribable pathos, the grand 
old chorus, "My Country, 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, 
of thee I sing, land of the Pilgrim's pride, land where my 
Fathers died, from every mountain side, let freedom ring." 
Such music is beyond description. Who will say that its 
beauty lies in the mere force of numbers? Those who can- 
not sing, cheer; there are those who can do neither, and 
their emotions find refuge in tears that well up from the 
fountain of the heart and overflow its brim. Such I be- 
lieve in kind and effect, though infinitely greater in degree, 
will be the music which will be the common possession of 
all men when the race stands face to face with its Creator 
with ears attuned to hear the harmonies of the universe. 



WHAT CAN A YOUNG MAN DO? 

EXTRACT FROM A RESPONSE TO THE ABOVE SENTI- 
MENT AT THE ANNUAL BANQUET OF THE YOUNG 
MEN'S CLUB OF THE FIRST CONGREGATIONAL 
CHURCH, DETROIT, MICH., MARCH ig, i8g6. 

Someone has asked "What are boys good for?" and an- 
other has answered "To make men." The story has it that 
a philosopher in ancient times stood viewing a procession. 
The head of the procession, composed of grey-headed 
heroes, bore a banner inscribed with the sentiment, "We 
have defended the State." "Ah," said the old man, "were 
there ever such men as these? Where shall their successors 
be found?" As he meditated, the center of the line came in 
view. Here were men in the strength and vigor of man- 
hood. Upon the banner that they bore was written, "We 
are the defenders of the State." The face of the old sage 
lit up with a glow of satisfaction as he exclaimed, "What 
State can be in danger while her honor and integrity are up- 
held and defended by such warriors?" Suddenly his face 
grew sad, and in mournful tones he added, "The old men 
have preserved their country, the young men are now its 
champions, but what shall happen when, after a few years, 
these men shall have passed away!" Just then the left of 
the procession approached. There marched the boys with 
springing step and smiling faces. They carried high their 

47 



48 SPHAGUE'S SPEECHES. 

banner, and upon it the wise man saw these words : "We 
will defend the State." "The gods be praised," he shouted, 
while tears of joy streamed down his cheeks, "the perpetuity 
of the State is assured." Upon our boys to-night the 
world's future rests. The fellow who spoils your last sweet, 
restful, morning nap with his merry romp, whose last gym- 
nastic exercises have left his room and bedding looking as 
if an Iowa cyclone had struck them, who, just for fun, has 
teased his sister until she is in tears, who has asked you 
more questions while you were reading the morning paper 
than a lawyer could propound, who wants more things in 
a day than you could purchase in a year, who furnishes his 
mamma business in repairing pantaloons and stockings, 
and in causing her unexpected trips to the grocery for the 
raisins she supposed she had, but hadn't ; the fellow whose 
good-bye kiss is sweeter to you than any nectar that Jupiter 
ever sipped, whose noble traits as they develop give you 
the greatest satisfaction, whose failings you so carefully 
endeavor to help him to overcome, — that boy is to take up 
the work of life where you left oflf, and, whether for good or 
ill, the world of to-morrow is in his hands. 

The sentiment of my toast, Mr. Toastmaster, is as broad 
as human possibilities and as deep as human experience. 
What can a young man do? What can he not do? What in 
the glorious record of a marvelous human progress has he 
not done? From the day when the youthful David slew the 
Philistine champion and became the anointed of the Lord, 
to this very day in which we live, young men have formed 



SPRAGUE'S SPEECHES. 49 

the opening wedge of the army of progress, from time to 
time startHng the world with their enthusiasm, fighting its 
greatest battles, and winning its greatest triumphs. 

Time and ability will permit me scarcely to enter upon the 
answering of this question. My only hope and expectation 
is to leave with you young men and to receive for myself to- 
night a new inspiration for better, higher, and nobler things. 

Every pulse-beat to-night is a leap forward into an un- 
known land. Every breeze that fans our cheek blows fresh 
from mountain, plain and river, of which our maps contain 
not even a suggestion. We are much like the great fron- 
tier army of men and women that lately stood upon the con- 
fines of a newly-opened territory in a far western State ; the 
magnificent prospect of new and undeveloped fields before 
us, our arms and backs laden with a motley equipment, our 
eyes expectant and eager, our muscles tense, our nerves in- 
stantly responsive; the word comes, the crack of the rifle, 
the enthusiastic shout, the struggle for place, the shout of 
victory mingled with the cry of defeat ; all these make up 
the picture of the great forward movement of men and 
women in this latter decade of the greatest century the 
world has ever seen. What part do you and I bear in this 
tremendous movement? Are we in the forefront of prog- 
ress, are we dropping behind in the race, are we falling by 
the roadside, are we loitering in careless indifference? I 
believe the next score of years will face more difficult prob- 
lems and decide more serious questions than the world has 
heretofore seen. What can a young man do? In a word, 
he can prepare himself for this future. 



50 SPRAGUE'S SPEECHES. 

Of the many things a young man can do, I desire to dwell 
particularly upon but two or three, and I trust you will not 
think I am sermonizing when I enumerate them. 

What can a young man do? He can help his fellow-man. 
The young men who come from homes that are so largely 
represented before me to-night, where temperance, intelli- 
gence, and thrift prevail, need not our most serious thought, 
but the young men with whom we touch arms in the 
crowded marts, who are getting their education in the 
street and amid scenes where pinching want drives men and 
women to deeds of desperation — these are the young men 
who demand our sympathy and our help. Their votes will 
weigh just as heavily as ours, and they will be able to run 
caucuses and poll votes by means that we cannot. The suc- 
cessful young man is always more or less of a Pharisee, and 
thanks the Lord a great many times a day that he is not 
like other men. Perchance he prides himself upon the fact 
that he is a self-made man, or, he prides himself upon his 
soundness of judgment, industry, economy, quickness of 
business instinct, absence of vice, a kind and even disposi- 
tion. How much is he to be commended for any of these 
things? Where did he get his buoyancy of disposition, his 
evenness of temper? Analyze for a moment your own life 
and confess to yourself how much that is commendable in 
you came from her who is and ever will be enshrined in the 
holiest place in your heart — your mother. You did not 
choose your ancestors. Think, for an instant, of the herit- 
age of that other young man. His very life is the result of 
the tendencies implanted in him at his birth. His spirit from 



SPR AGUE'S SPEECHES. 51 

the beginning is bound in chains that the power of God 
Almighty alone can strike down. What can we young men 
do? We can join hands in sympathy and encouragement 
with such of our fellows as do not start even with us in the 
race. We can encourage him whose feet falter, whose cour- 
age weakens, whose step betrays weariness of heart and des- 
peration of purpose. 

What can a young man do? Make his own environment. 
He cannot choose his own ancestors, but he can choose his 
books, his companions, his occupation, his amusements. 
You would not put a diamond in a setting of filth — yet 
many a young man is doing this to-night with a God-given 
talent. 

What can a young man do? Marry. Cast out your 
anchor, boys — you who are drifting. Let it catch fast in 
the solid rock of some young woman's love. There is no 
anchorage so safe as that in the affectionate heart of a pure 
young girl. There is no well so deep and refreshing to a 
tired, dusty traveler in this life as the home love of wife and 
children. God made it for you and for me. Sow your wild 
oats if you will, but when the harvest is gathered see to it 
that not one grain in all that harvest of chaff shall represent 
a young girl's broken heart or ruined life. 

What can a young man do? Take his place as the hon- 
ored head of a little world of his own, with his own hearth- 
stone, around it to gather the crowning glory of his maturer 
years — a loving wife, and dutiful children. No picture in 
all the world's galleries is so beautiful as that painted by 
Burns, a poor young Scotchman at the age of twenty-seven 
in a garret over a stable — the Cotter's Saturday Night. 



52 SPRAGUE'S SPEECHES. 

What can a young man do? Do his best in whatever 
sphere of life he enters. A student? Be the best student in 
the school. A bookkeeper? Be an expert and be satisfied 
with nothing but the highest achievements in that line. A 
mechanic? Be the smartest, cleanest, quickest workman in 
the shop — aye, in the town. A professional man? Let no 
seeming obstacles prevent your aiming at the very highest 
place. The world is full of mediocre talent — men who can 
just do things and that is all — men who just earn a living 
and that is all. If you have talent, thank God for it and use 
it for all it is worth. If you have not talent, make up for its 
loss by heroic work. Work is genius. It is curious to note 
that nearly every man the world has called a genius has 
been a tireless worker. 

What can a young man do? Serve his country. Some of 
us were but babes pressed to our mothers' trembling 
bosoms when the bugle called to arms in i860. Some of 
us never heard the call nor felt the patriotic thrill that went 
from heart to heart in those terrible days. God grant we 
never may be called upon to strike hands in a bloody war, 
but should it come let us as young men — the sons of patriot 
sires, cry out in the enthusiasm of a holy patriotism — Our 
country ! May she ever be right ! but right or wrong — our 
country ! 

What can a young man do? Serve his God. Stand by 
the faith of his fathers who built the nation for God. Revere 
the Bible his mother loved even as he reveres her memory. 
What can a young man do? Build character, grow, accum- 
ulate, fight the battles of right, marry, make a home, love 



SPR AGUE'S SPEECHES. ^.^ 

his country, serve his God. What can he do? Nothing — 
aye, worse than nothing — he can come into manhood a 
blackening curse to himself, a disgrace to his family, a 
festering influence in the community. What can a young 
man do? He can drive his chariot among the stars or bur- 
row in the dirt like the ground mole, destroying the fair 
face of the earth in his greedy search for loathsome prey. 
What can he do? Everything. But what if poor? Napol- 
eon at the age of twenty-three burst the bonds of obscurity 
and poverty and caused his superiors to cry out — Promote 
that young man or he will promote himself. Poverty, young 
man, has ever been the school of genius. I leave but this 
word of inspiration with you. The world of to-morrow is 
what you make it. To-day is the workshop of to-morrow. 
To-morrow is the product of to-day. 

Young man, to-day and to-morrow are yours. 

Enter and possess. 



THE SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHER AND HIS 
PROBLEMS. 

DELIVERED BEFORE THE STATE CONVENTION OF THE 

MICHIGAN ST A TE SUNDA V SCHOOL ASSOCIA TION 

A T DETROIT, MICH., IN ISgs- 

I take it that what you as teachers want to take home with 
you from this convention is not the memory of eloquent 
words nor, altogether, the inspiration from great crowds 
and from inspiring music. You have given your time and 
your money that you may be enabled through converse with 
other teachers who meet the same problems and experiences 
as do you, to take home with you better ideas of how you 
should do your work. If you can carry home a heart in- 
spired with love and zeal and a mind stored wi^h new ideas 
for work, you will have reason forever to congratulate your- 
selves on your attendance at this convention. Inspiration 
is a good thing in itself, but if I were to choose between in- 
spiration and ideas and could not have both I would take 
the latter. 

In marking out the line of discussion I desire that it shall 
touch upon three prominent points. 

First, the preparation for the lesson ; second, the gaining 
and the retaining of pupils ; third, the saving of the boys 
and girls. 

First, the preparation of the lesson. 

54 



SFRAGUE'S SPEECHES. 55 

When? Not in the school hour, not on the way to the 
school, not at breakfast Sunday morning, not Saturday 
night, not at teachers' meeting. I would suggest that the 
study begin tiie Sunday preceding the date of the teaching, 
and continue throughout the week. Read Sunday afternoon 
the lesson of the following Sunday together with your refer- 
ence books, lesson leaves, commentaries, and other helps. 
Try to discover what points in the lesson the Great Teacher 
would have impressed upon your class. These points may 
differ with different classes. The question with you is, not 
what does the lesson leaf tell you is the teaching of the 
verses, but what, taking into consideration the character of 
your class, is the one or more thoughts contained in the 
verses that will do your class the most good. There may be 
several such thoughts which, as you read and reflect, will 
crystalize themselves as the teaching points. Write these 
thoughts briefly in your pocket-diary or note book and live 
with them through the week. Gather from the experience 
ana the reading of the five intervening days your illustra- 
tions and your argument. You will come before your class 
so thoroughly saturated with the spirit of your lesson that 
teaching will be a delightful rather than an irksome duty. 
The busiest man has time for this sort of study. I consider 
it the most profitable and the most practical method. 

If you are so situated that you must do all your studying 
at one time give some choice time to it ; don't give the mis- 
erable dregs of some tired day ; don't choose the time when 
the tired body demands rest for itself and for the mind; 
don't wind up a busy week by giving the tag-ends of your 



56 SPRAGUKS SPEECHES. 

energy to the lesson. Give to it the morning hour. See if 
it does not sweeten the day. See if business does not go bet- 
ter. See if the sun does not shine brighter, the birds sing 
sweeter, Heaven smile more graciously on you and through 
you. Don't, I beg of you, give your Sunday morning to it. 
Some men and women study to teach in the same manner 
in which they would load a gun. They pour in the powder, 
follow with a wad, ram it home with a few vigorous punches, 
set the cap, aim, and fire, — all in an incredibly short time. 
To change the simile I should not wonder if some of us 
teachers who complain so much are afflicted with spiritual 
dyspepsia. We have swallowed our food so fast we can't 
digest it, and we seek to lay the blame for our uncomfort- 
able feeling upon the Superintendent, the Pastor, the Class, 
when all the time what ails us is a spiritual stomach-ache 
from irregular or hastily bolted meals. Mark Twain says, 
in speaking of the discovery of America by Columbus, that 
the first thing Columbus did when he landed was to go to 
a hotel, go up to his room, light the gas and sit down and 
think it over. I beg of you who are dissatisfied with your 
teaching that when you go to your homes you follow the 
example of Columbus. The trouble is, with the most of us, 
we are not making a business of this thing as we should. 
Do we realize that upon us devolves almost wholly the 
training and instruction of the boys and girls, in spiritual 
things? The parent and the State is concerned about the 
physical and the mental equipment of the children ; but to 
the Sunday school teacher alone is left the care of that 
higher element of the child's nature, — the spiritual. The 



SPR AGUE'S SPEECHES. 57 

paltry half hour on Sunday morning is in the great majority 
of cases the only half hour of the week in which the child 
receives spiritual instruction. Parents have a strange tim- 
idity in this regard, especially as the child reaches boyhood 
or girlhood. Almost entirely is the responsibility in this 
regard shifted upon the Sunday school teacher. How awful, 
then, — I use this word meaning it — how awful, then, is the 
spectacle of the teacher sitting before his class Sunday 
morning, hurriedly cramming enough of the lesson into 
himself to be able to ask a few questions of his pupils and 
not to appear altogether unprepared. 

Where shall I prepare? Everywhere, I would say. Let 
your daily life and observation throughout the week furnish 
the illustration and inspiration for the lesson. In other 
words, let the whole week focus as it were, upon that lesson. 
But you say, I am not accustomed to this kind of thinking. 
No; but what you are unaccustomed to by disuse you can 
become accustomed to by use. Don't use the arm and you 
will soon have no arm to use. Don't cultivate independent 
thought and the power of independent thought will soon be 
gone. This leads me to say of lesson-helps that in them lies 
one of the greatest possible dangers. The devil gains ad- 
vanced ground in a class when the teacher throws away her 
Bible for her lesson-leaves. I maintain that they have no 
place in the school. They certainly have no place in the 
teacher's hand. They have a place as a tool for the teacher's 
use in a preliminary survey of the lesson. Further than that 
I believe them to be wickedly harmful. They destroy inde- 
pendent thought, they tempt the teacher to delay the prepar- 
ation of the lesson to the last moment when with definitions 



58 SFRAGUE'S SPEECHES. 

and pronunciations and explanations galore and with illus- 
trations ready made and questions put into his mouth, all 
he needs to do is to do nothing and the lesson runs itself. 
You say this is fanciful. It is not fanciful so far as it relates 
to any school that I have ever seen. It is not fanciful. 
Teachers are doing this more generally than we think. The 
fact is, I repeat, we, as teachers, a good many of us, do not 
mean business. We are but playing at teaching, and the 
boys and the girls are growing out of the Sunday school and 
we teachers, in the country and the city alike, are asking 
with heavy hearts how we can keep the young men and the 
young women in the schools? I tell you one reason is we 
do not think enough of them or appreciate enough our 
responsibilities to do our duty toward them as teachers. 
Boys and girls are keen enough to know when the teacher 
neglects his duty. They are quick to see the shoddy in what 
he offers them. Once they determine that the teacher 
shirks and they will shirk. Imitation is second nature with 
a boy, and if it is something bad it is first nature. The 
modern methods of Bible study are gradually putting the 
old book itself on the shelf. At Grand Rapids last year I 
took dinner with a friend and at his table sat two elderly 
schoolmarms of the city schools, — bright, intelligent 
women. I was amazed to hear one of them say, "the chil- 
dren are coming to know less and less of the Bible." I sug- 
gested that I thought she must be mistaken, and then, re- 
membering that her field of observation was infinitely 
wider than mine, I admitted that possibly she was right. 
This, too, in Grand Rapids, a city of wealth and culture, a 



SPRAGUE'S SPEECHES. 59 

city of rich churches, of great preachers and teachers, and 
the children coming to know less and less of the Bible ! My 
good old father is still living, — a Baptist deacon in a little 
town in southeastern Ohio. He never went to college as I 
did ; he never went to city Sunday schools, with all their 
modern improvements, as I have ; he never was in a Sunday 
school convention that I know of ; he never could say, as I 
can at my age, that he had taught in Sunday school for 
nearly twenty years ; but as compared with his knowledge of 
the Bible and his ability to quote it, and his faith and confi- 
dence in it, my own is not to be mentioned. The reason is he 
had Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress and I have Trilby. He had 
the weekly newspaper if he had any, I have two dailies ; he 
had the Bible, and I have Sunday school papers, lesson 
leaves, lives of Christ, commentaries, charts and pictures, till 
in the confusion I don't know which God said and which man 
said, and what with the new version and higher criticism I 
am often led to wonder if God ever said anything. My con- 
tention is that the teacher should begin his preparation of 
the lesson at least a week in advance of its teaching ; that he 
should draw his inspiration and illustration from life as he 
sees it; that he should determine well in advance what 
points in the lesson are best adapted to his class; that he 
should discard all helps save as preliminary to real prepar- 
ation. It is needless for me to say that adequate preparation 
of spirit and body should accompany the preparation of 
mind, but I can dwell no longer here. Much more might be 
said along these lines, but I must pass to the gaining and 
retaining pupils. 



6o SPRAGUE'S SPEECHES. 

My friends, there is no secret about this. People, young 
and old, will go where they are wanted if the place and the 
associations are made attractive for them. There is nothing 
in itself repulsive about the religion of Jesus Christ. It is the 
happiest thing on this footstool. All you need to do to win 
people to the Sunday school is to let Christ's spirit work in 
it freely, and that spirit will not work in it if there are jeal- 
ousies, quarrelings, bitterness, contentions, suspicion, back- 
biting there. The personality of the teacher has a great deal 
to do with the success of a class. That personality must be 
attractive — attractive every day of the week, in school and 
out. A sour visaged teacher will never hold a class. A 
cross teacher will not attract. There are teachers who do 
not fulfill the requirement in this respect; they are like the 
deacon's wife — remarkably even-tempered — always cross. 
If some teachers could see themselves as others see them 
they would cut their own acquaintance on the spot. The 
Sunday school teacher who wins pupils and keeps them need 
not be beautiful of face or of form, an artist may not seek 
her for his canvas; but beauty of character and conduct 
must characterize her, or all the receipes that all the Sunday 
school experts in the world might give her would not help 
her. She must not patronize her class. She must place her- 
self in close sympathy and contact with them. She must 
learn something of their habits of thought and action, and 
govern herself accordingly. She must recognize them in 
the school, and on the street — certainly. I would rather 
make twenty awkward blunders in speaking to twenty peo- 
ple on the street I do not know than fail to speak to one 



SFJRAGUE'S SPEECHES. 6i 

member of my class whom I do know. The hand-shake and 
the "good-morning" must be hearty and genuine and im- 
partial. Mr. Wanamaker comes before his great school of 
several thousand people and as he .steps upon the rostrum 
for the opening exercises he leans forward and, in the most 
kindly tone, says, "Good morning, dear teachers and scholars 
of the Bethany Sabbath school and visiting friends," and 
they answer in concert, "Good morning, dear teacher." 
There is a fountain playing in the middle of the room and 
the tinkling drops almost audibly shout, "Joy, joy ;" and just 
in front of me (before the opening of the school) stands a 
young woman teacher, who has evidently been away from 
home and has just returned, and, pressing close upon her, 
caressing her, with faces all beaming with joy, are six little 
girls, everyone clamoring for a kiss. Joy, joy, is written all 
over the faces of that crowded school, from its superinten- 
dent to its tiniest pupil, and in the notes of every song, in 
the syllables of every word, in the breathings of every prayer. 
John Wanamaker started a school several years ago with a 
little group of poor children in a poor little room in a 
neglected part of Philadelphia, and out of it has grown one 
of the greatest churches in Christendom, and the greatest 
Bible class ever known. The secret? O, tell me the secret, 
you say. There is none to tell you except that God's spirit 
of love and joy has found free course in the hearts of the 
workers there. 

What hinders your success, dear teacher? Yourself, 
largely; God, never. 

How can I best train up a boy in the way he should go? 
Go that way myself. Many a boy would stay on the track 



62 SPR AGUE'S SPEECHES. 

if the switch were not misplaced for him. The superinten- 
dent may be largely to blame. It is his duty to make the 
exercises attractive. He should vary the program, he 
should see that the room is bright and clean and cheerful. 
Flowers and pictures delight children as they do grown 
folks. The music should be bright and happy. 

The good teacher who struggles patiently against the dis- 
couragements put in her way by a tardy, unsympathetic, un- 
systematic superintendent is to be pitied ; and yet, — despite 
all the disadvantages that teacher may suffer — his sacrifice 
of self, his love for his class, his devotion to their good, his 
careful preparation of the lesson, will win the confidence, the 
respect, the love, the allegiance of his class. A loyal class 
will grow. You know this. Win for yourself the affections 
of your class and my word for it you need not worry for its 
growth in numbers. It is the little things that affect the 
teacher's place in the regard of the class. Here are some 
little things any one of which, if persisted in by the teacher, 
will spoil a class : Tardiness, whispering (and teachers do 
a vast amount of it), lack of preparation (and the class surely 
will discover it), inattention to the general exercises, lack of 
variety in class work, lack of cordiality in the class and out 
of it, lack of interest in them and their affairs. A teacher 
who is a teacher of his class for but one hour Sunday morn- 
ing and a stranger to the class through the balance of the 
week, will not be successful in gaining or holding a class. A 
class spirit may well be cultivated but more than that, create 
a bond of personal friendship between yourself and every 
member of your class, so that when Sunday morning comes 



SFRAGUE'S SPEECHES. 63 

they are glad because they will meet and talk with you. 
Greet them heartily when they come and bid them each 
good-bye personally. That hand-shake often goes far into 
the week. I make it a practice every Sunday to stand at the 
door and shake the hand of every member and visitor of my 
Bible class, and some days I have shaken hands with from 
four hundred to five hundred. My arm aches when I am 
done, and it is a relief when I turn from the door, but I re- 
joice to know, as I do know, that a kind word at parting has 
saved poor souls from going out into eternal night. I pray 
you, teachers, make a business of this work of Sunday 
school teaching. 

Pray? Yes. Preach? Yes. Conventions? Yes. 
Books? Yes. But, oh, get the spirit of the Master first of 
everything and when you do, fewer questions will trouble 
you ; for love will solve them. Do you know a good class, 
a good school? Seek for the reason of it, and if you do not 
find the heart to heart, hand to hand methods of Jesus Christ 
exemplified by some good people in the institution, then my 
observation is at fault. 

Sunday school scholars, especially y^ung men and young 
women, do not like controversy, hair splitting, speculations, 
doctrineering I will call it. What kills more Bible classes 
than any other one thing is a chronic controversionalist, or 
hobby rider, who sees his pet theory or doctrine or ism in 
every lesson and who insists on injecting it into every class 
exercise. I pity you, teacher, if you have any such an one. 
He is a bigger problem to solve than that one about free 
will and predestination. My advice to you is to get him out 



64 SPR AGUE'S SPEECHES. 

— gently if you can, forcibly if you must; for it is only a 
question, if he remains, whether you will have a Bible class 
at all after a while. 

Be the kind leader, but nevertheless be the leader of your 
class. 

Now as to saving the children : 

We are Sunday school teachers for this purpose and no 
other, and strange to say we do not bring children to Christ 
(more often than not) because we don't ask them. We for- 
get the great commission. We pray that the children may 
come and all the time the ivy is growing over the door be- 
cause we do not open and bid them enter. 

An old darkey who was asked if, in his experience, prayer 
was ever answered, replied, "Well, sah, some pra'rs is ansud, 
an' some isn't — 'pends on w'at you axes fo'. Jest arter de 
wah, w'en it was mighty hard scratchin' fo' de culled bred- 
dern, I 'bsarved dat, w'nebber I pray de Lo'd to sen' Mars 
Peyton's fat turkeys fo' de old man, dere was no notice took 
ob de partition; but w'en I pray dat He would sen' de ole 
man fo' de turkey, de matter was tended to befo' sun-up 
nex' mornin'." 

What we need is that we go bring the children. God has 
prepared the hearts of the little ones. All they need fre- 
quently is your gentle, "Come." A friend called upon me 
one evening just after dinner, and sitting down we talked 
pleasantly of the weather, politics, and the happenings of 
the day and the neighborhood, and presently he put on his 
hat, said good-night, and left. In some fifteen minutes he 



SPRAGUE'S SPEECHES. 65 

came rushing back, breathless, to say that he had forgotten 
what he had come for, and that was to invite myself and 
family to spend the evening at his house. 

I fear we, as teachers, are acting much like this. We 
teach, Sunday after Sunday, of the things of time and etern- 
ity and go home to find we forgot our errand. Some times 
we forget it forever and the little boys and girls grow up and 
out of the school and we have never thought of the invita- 
tion. 

Once in a while, my dear friends, it will do you good to 
take your class aside individually, ask them the great ques- 
tion, and hold open the door. 

Try it, and my word for it, God will bless you and give 
you souls for your hire. 



MASONRY, AND THE YEAR BEFORE US. 

IN A UGURAL ADDRESS DELIVERED ON BEING INSTALLED 

AS MASTER OF CORINTHIAN LODGE, F. AND A. M , AT 

THE MASONIC TEMPLE IN DETROIT, JAN., iSgy. 

Worshipful Sir, and Brothers and Friends of Corinthian 
Lodge : — Agreeable to a custom adopted in this Lodge, it 
becomes my duty as well as pleasure to address you upon 
this occasion. Allow me to preface my remarks, however, 
by requesting that you be patient with me if my discourse 
betrays lack of due preparation, for I am, and have been for 
a week past, under the doctor's care and am really not in fit 
condition to appear before you in any capacity. This must 
excuse also my reading from manuscript, which sort of ad- 
dress I am not accustomed to make. I would be unfaithful 
to my duty and would do violence to my own desire in the 
matter if I were to say nothing on this occasion so import- 
ant to me, and, I trust and pray, so important to Corinthian 
Lodge. I have thought that if I could not enter into so 
learned a disquisition upon Masonry as did my worthy pre- 
decessor on the occasion of the last installation, I could at 
least express to you my grateful appreciation of the honor 
conferred upon me and outline to you something of my 
aspirations in connection with the office to which you have 
chosen me. Before speaking in this direction, however, I 
would say a few words that occur to me in regard to 

66 



SPR AGUE'S SPEECHES. 67 

Masonry in general, for the profit, and, I trust, pleasure of 
any who may be present who are not members of the An- 
cient Order. 

Ponderous books have been written by men who have 
spent their lives in the study of ancient mysteries, to show 
that Masonry had its beginning with the very dawn of his- 
tory. The question may well be left with antiquarians ; it 
can be of no vital or really profitable use to us. We live in 
an age that is essentially "up-to-date." The fact that a 
thing is old has little weight in the estimation of the prac- 
tical thought of to-day, which only asks, what is it worth 
now, what is its value in the present, what influence for 
good or evil does it now exert, is it a factor that will go to 
affect the future? Whatever may have been the status of 
Masonry in the days of the Pharos and Ptolemies, or in the 
days of the Medes and Persians, or the Greeks and the 
Romans ; whatever good purpose it may have served during 
the dark ages when superstition and oppression reigned 
throughout the world to keep burning the fires of true pat- 
riotism and to keep alive a spirit of true fraternity among 
men ; whatever value it may have had several centuries ago 
as sowing the seed of liberty of thought and speech, and 
freedom of action, that finally blossomed forth in Magna 
Charta in England, in the reformation in Germany, and, 
some time later, in the great revolution in France ; whatever 
of value the institution might have had in the early days of 
our own country in fostering the spirit of fraternity and 
binding together by closer ties the immortal patriots of the 
revolution when George Washington was at the head of the 



68 SPRAGUE'S SPEECHES. 

American craft and Benjamin Franklin was high up in its 
councils ; whatever, I say, may have been its history, as the 
great stream of Masonry has flowed on through the ages 
gathering to itself force and volume by the gathering to 
itself, from a million sources, elements of strength and in- 
fluence, and by the gathering about its altars the greatest 
and best of men of all ages and all civilized lands, the ques- 
tion most to be considered not only by Masons themselves 
but by men who may from time to time consider the advis- 
ability of joining the institution, is, what has Masonry to 
offer now? Of what value is it in this day and age of the 
world? What place does it occupy in the busy life of the 
latter part of the 19th century? Is its mission fulfilled? Or 
is it still a living force with a living purpose and a right to 
continued existence? 

To answer these important questions the fundamental 
principles of Masonry should be understood. Masonry, 
while a religious institution, is not a religion. That some 
men make it a religion is not the fault of the institution itself 
any more than are the beauties of nature to be held to ac- 
count for their being made objects of worship, as they have 
been in all ages of the world. So good have seemed the 
principles of the Order, so little subject to criticism by even 
the most captious, that some men in the enthusiasm of their 
study and observation have thrown themselves down before 
it as before their God, and have offered up to it their adora- 
tions, forgetting that principles and rules of action and laws 
of right-doing are the creatures and not the creator, — the 
will of God rather than God Himself. Modern Masonry, and 



SPR AGUE'S SPEECHES. 69 

here I say modern Masonry because however far back we 
go for the beginnings of the stream, we must recognize a 
difiference in that stream at the various stages of its pro- 
gress, just as a river will partake of the color and character 
of the soil and surroundings through which it flows, vary- 
ing in volume, in depth, in swiftness of current, in smooth- 
ness of surface, in color, in taste and even in smell accord- 
ing to the character of the bottom over which it flows and 
the banks beneath which it runs, — modern Masonry seems 
to have been constructed or grown around the idea that men 
have sought and are ever seeking central and vital truths 
upon which all may unite. Universal brotherhood has been 
the ideal toward which social reformers, philosophers, and 
statesmen of the better class, have been looking ever since 
Luther awakened the idea of freedom of religious thought, 
ever since Gutenberg gave the printing press to the world, 
and ever since Columbus opened up the path of discovery. 
But universal brotherhood without some great central prin- 
ciples upon which all men may unite as a basis of fraternal 
action must forever remain a philosopher's dream. 

I am here to say that Masonry is practically the only in- 
stitution the world has ever seen that has collected to itself, 
and that teaches in every word of its ritual and every act of 
its ceremonial, those universal principles and rules of right 
action — and only those — upon which all men of whatever 
class, condition, sect, nationality, and political opinion may 
unite. So broad and so universally recognized have been 
these principles and rules that underlie the Masonic Fra- 
ternity that never in all its wonderful history, extending 



70 SmAGUE'S SPEECHES. 

through centuries and throughout every civiHzed country, 
no division of opinion, no separation into parties, no clash 
or conflict has ever taken place respecting them. Within 
the broad borders of Masonry there can never occur what 
has divided the body of Christ's people into an hundred 
more or less antagonistic bodies. The foundation stone, 
therefore, of Masonry universal is universal truth. This 
universal truth is not only the foundation of Masonry, it is 
Masonry itself. From the moment the applicant for initia- 
tion steps within the portals of the Lodge to the moment 
when he is declared to be a Master Mason and entitled to 
all the rights and benefits thereof, every step of his progress, 
every word that he hears, every word that he utters, every 
object upon which his eyes rest, every sound that greets his 
ears is a manifestation in some form, distinct, clear and im- 
pressive, of universal truth in some of its many aspects. It 
may be virtue, it may be fortitude, it may be courtesy, it 
may be charity, it may be benevolence, it may be in honor 
preferring one another, it may be care for the defenseless, it 
may be sympathy for the oppressed, it may be filial affec- 
tion, it may be reverence to God, it may be now one, now 
another of these, but first or last, let me say it to the ever- 
lasting honor of Masonry, before the seeker after truth shall 
have finished his progress, he will have learned all that is 
contained in what St. James writes in the New Testament is 
pure religion and undefiled, "to visit the fatherless and the 
widow in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from 
the world." I make the assertion that there is not one 
virtue, not one heroic trait of religious character, not one 



SFRAGUE'S SPEECHES. 71 

grand and enduring principle of morality to be found be- 
tween the covers of the Book of Books that is not taught 
before the altar of a Masonic Lodge. 

You will not misunderstand me when I say that the 
church has much to learn of Masonry. I have been im- 
pressed with the thought that the church, divine in its relig- 
ion, its mission, its ministry, and its works, pays too much 
attention to the duty man owes to God and too little to the 
duty man owes to his felloAvmen. There is one thing of 
which Masonry may well be proud. Masons are taught to 
love one another. This injunction finds repeated utterance 
in the Lodge, and the ritual and ceremonial, both by ex- 
ample and illustration, impress it. 

Without seeming to draw too dark a picture of the future, 
I yet feel that the coming generation has before it for set- 
tlement some of the mightiest problems the world has ever 
met. It does not require a prophet to see that the unsettled 
social conditions that now exist, the growth of selfishness, 
and avarice, manifesting itself in hurtful combinations, are 
hurrying our civilization on to a conflict between the var- 
ious forces of society, the character of which must cause 
even the stoutest of us to shudder. At no time in the his- 
tory of the world has there been greater need for the spread 
of the spirit of fraternity, forbearance, patience, — in a 
word, of the spirit of brotherly love. Such a spirit is not 
taught in the exchanges, in the market places, in politics. 
Nowhere, I claim, can it be found taught by precept and ex- 
ample as it is within the Masonic Lodges. If you will look 
for a true democracy you will not find it in any Christian 



72 SFRAGUE'S SPEECHES. 

church of which I have knowledge. In most with which it 
has been my fortune to be acquainted the brother with the 
longest pocket-book has the best seat, while the poor widow 
with nothing but her mite either has no seat at all or finds 
an obscure one where she can worship God not only unob- 
served, but unobserving. The proud boast of Masonry is 
that within the Lodge room we meet upon the level. We 
recognize neither differences of political opinion, differ- 
ences of religious opinion, differences of pocket-book, dif- 
ferences of caste, nor differences of social station. No dif- 
ferences are recognized within this room save differences of 
worth and merit. For the orderly dispensation of the work, 
officers are required, but in the choice of these the Lodge is 
supposed to choose, and generally does choose, those who 
best can work and best agree. 

During the dark ages the religion of Jesus Christ, 
trampled almost from off the earth by the barbarous hordes 
of the north and the south, was kept alive by the pious 
monks within their cloisters, hidden away for generations, 
awaiting the oncoming of a newer and a better age. It 
is interesting to note the analogy. During the reign of op- 
pression that existed for many centuries in England, France 
and Germany the only spots where the principles of relig- 
ious and political liberty, the only oases in the immense des- 
erts of oppression where true fraternity between man and 
man bloomed in living colors were the old Masonic Lodges. 
Here were kept alive the seed principles of brotherhood 
and equality which the world had for centuries forgotten. 

If strife must come, as I have hinted is possible, between 
the conflicting elements of society; if a social upheaval is 



SFRAGUE'S SPEECHES. 73 

necessary and a reconstruction of our political and social 
systems required, may not Masonry again play the part, 
indeed, may she not now be playing the part, of a conserva- 
tor of these fundamental principles which men through pas- 
sion and prejudice are so prone to forget? In the provi- 
dence of God may not this great institution, founded upon 
His eternal truths, form the right wing of Jehovah's army 
in the coming conflict ready to spring full panoplied into 
the field to do battle, not for the supremacy of class, of sect, 
or of opinion, but for the preservation of those good princi- 
ples which form the basis of all true society. 

To return, therefore, to the question I asked in the begin- 
ning, — to what purpose is Masonry now, I would answer, 
in order that she may continue to teach and preserve the 
fundamental truths which all men must recognize, and more 
particularly that she may conserve the spirit of fraternity 
and of brotherly love that history has shown us men are 
prone to lose. 

Now, my brothers of Corinthian Lodge, a few words to 
you particularly: 

I believe I appreciate thoroughly the dignity and the 
responsibility of the office to which you have called me. I 
know your anxiety that the affairs of this Lodge may be ad- 
ministered with fidelity and with zeal. You want that we 
shall hold all the ground we have gained in the four years 
since tremblingly and yet with confidence we wrote over our 
banner the new name — Corinthian, and went forth to make 
that name illustrious, and also that we make material ad- 
vances. I think I understand the temper of the men of this 



74 SPRAGUE'S SPEECHES. 

Lodge. They have shown in the past that they will let 
nothing stand in the way of achieving their cherished ends. 
When leaving the old "Oriental" home they went out, 
something like the Puritans from the old world, because 
they had set up for themselves an ideal home which they 
longed to make a real one. 

I joined you in that hope. I met with you in the solemn 
stillness of secret retreats to plan not rebellion against our 
mother but peaceable separation. 

I sympathize with you in your every aspiration for Corin- 
thian Lodge. Nay, perhaps I go farther than do you. I 
now ask the privilege of hinting at one or two points of 
vantage that I wish we might take and occupy during the 
coming year. 

I believe the time has come in our life as a Lodge when 
we should begin to practice that virtue which we teach, but 
which we are slow to practice, namely. Economy. I think 
it may be truly said that we have shown superhuman faith 
in ourselves in the past few years in the way we have ex- 
pended money for the machinery of our work. I rejoice 
that we are, though young, yet rich in all the accessories of 
our work. The candidate who takes his degrees in this 
Lodge is certainly highly favored. 

Having attained to excellence in this particular I shall 
ask the Lodge, now that we have done so much, to pursue 
for a time a policy of retrenchment. Not that we may 
merely lay up money, for I have always held that a Masonic 
Lodge has little business with a bank account as such, but 
that we may have money and having it, spend it for char- 
itable and useful purposes outside of those purposes which 



SPR AGUE'S SPEECHES. 75 

may be termed selfish and personal. The wealth to make 
us boast is not the wealth of gilded ceremonials. Those 
deeds of charity we have done will stay forever with us ; and 
that wealth we have so bestowed we only keep. The other 
is not ours. The genius of Masonry, my brothers, does not 
consist in frequenting established meetings, or decorating 
ourselves with the insignia belonging to our profession. If 
there be a brother that dare pass by his neighbor in distress, 
or because he himself possesses the light, would turn the 
blind man out of his way, acknowledge him not. The name 
of brother is an empty sound, indeed, if we refuse our hand 
to one fallen into a pit, disdain to relieve the sorrows of the 
widow and the orphan, or discard from our lives the exer- 
cise of charity. 

A Masonic Lodge is not free from the danger of forget- 
ting practical charity. One of the unfortunate circum- 
stances surrounding our Lodge is that there is so little call 
upon us for an exercise of Masonic charity. Unhappy the 
man who reaches a position where he ceases to feel the great 
pulsating heart of humanity. Unhappy and unfortunate 
too the Lodge that finds no requirement for the exercise of 
that greatest of Masonic virtues, — not merely benevolence, 
but beneficence. 

All hail the day, I say, when we shall as quickly and as 
often and as cheerfully draw out our warrants for Masonic 
charity as we do for the gilt and glitter of Masonic ceremon- 
ials. 

In the matter of accuracy, in my work, and in the work of 
my subordinate officers, I hope I may meet the demands of 



76 SPR AGUE'S SPEECHES. 

the most exacting of my brothers ; may I ask in return their 
faithful support in an effort to make the year one of good 
work and plenty of it, a year of careful and conscientious 
effort to upbuild not only Corinthian Lodge, but Masonry 
generally, by a wise application in our own lives of the use- 
ful lessons we here learn. 

In conclusion let me express the hope and indict the 
prayer to the Grand Architect of the Universe that this 
Lodge may inspire and preserve the love and respect of all 
who learn of her ; that she may be liberal in the promotion 
of all good and useful undertakings. May the indigent and 
distressed at all times be subjects of her sympathy and con- 
cern; may her charity flow in quiet, but constant streams 
from a fountain that is at no time suffered to sustain the 
smallest diminution, and may no pursuit of hers, however 
momentous, be permitted to interrupt her systematic atten- 
tion to the children of want. 

Let us also remember that while we are to act with 
especial regard to the well doing and the well being of those 
of the "Household of Faith," yet God hath made mankind 
one mighty brotherhood, himself their Master, and the 
world their Lodge. The prophetic words of Freemasonry's 
immortal laureate bard are ever re-echoed in faith and hope 
and triumph by all true brothers of the mystic tie : 

"Then let us pray that come it may 
As come it will for a' that. 

That man to man, the world o'er 
Shall brothers be for a' that." 



BETA BACHELORS. 

DELI VERED AT A BANQUET IN HONOR OF THE FO UNDER S 

OF THE BETA THETA PI COLLEGE FRATERNITY, AT 

THE BURNET HOUSE IN CINCINNATI, IN j8gs. 

For fear that a riot may occur during the progress of my 
speech, when it is discovered that I am not a bachelor, I 
think I had better avert a lynching by making the confes- 
sion and tendering the apology now. 

In trying to conjure up within myself the spirit of the 
bachelor so that I might appear, at least, upon speaking 
terms with my subject, I am reminded that I was born a 
bachelor, and I remember the yelp of despair I let loose 
when I discovered the fact. For a few brief years I experi- 
enced the questionable joys of the bachelor life until one fine 
day in June ten years ago I slipped my trolley and became 
thenceforth a monomaniac on baby foods and first assistant 
tacks collector in my humble home. Until a few hours ago 
I had hoped to conceal this fact, but while telling Brother 
Hepburn how glad I was that we bachelors were to be given 
a chance to-night, Brother Beal, who prides himself on an 
intimate acquaintance with me, which acquaintance has 
often cost me pain and embarrassment, came up and ab- 
ruptly asked me how I left the babies. Whereupon, my 
presence of mind, at no time a very stable quantity, took the 
wings of the morning — or rather, of the evening. To add 

77 



78 SFRAGUE'S SPEECHES. 

to my discomfiture, the aroma of paregoric from a bottle 
of the stuff that Beal carries with him as a weapon of offense 
and defense against a little Beal-zebub, — or rather Bub-ze- 
Beal — began to assail the nostrils of Hepburn. I then gave 
all up as lost. I then knew that concealment was vain. 

From the fact that the committee selected a married man 
for this toast, I conclude that the committee is composed of 
bachelors and that they had one of four reasons for doing 
so: Either, first, bachelor Betas are so modest they can 
not bear to hear themselves talk ; or second, they wished to 
shine by borrowed lustre ; or third, they feared exposure 
might result if they asked one of their own number to talk, 
preferring one or two stray shots from one who indistinctly 
sees the mark at which he aims rather than the well-directed 
shots of one who knows whereof he shoots ; or fourth, they 
cherished the diabolical purpose of showing off their own 
virtues by placing before you a brother so thoroughly satu- 
rated with matrimony as to present a horrible example. 

But may not a married man be the fittest person after all 
to respond to this toast? 

A writer — anonymous when he wrote it — so truly and 
beautifully pictured the joys and sorrows of a married life, 
that critics said, the man who wrote "The Reveries of a 
Bachelor" must be a married man. The author, in a preface 
to a subsequent edition, thanked the critics for having 
spoken so kindly of him and expressed the wish that the 
thought were as true as it was kind, "and yet," he adds, "I 
am inclined to think that bachelors are the only safe and 
secure observers of all the phases of married life. The rest 



SPR AGUE'S SPEECHES. 79 

of the world have their hobbies, and by law as well as by 
immemorial custom are reckoned unfair witnesses in every- 
thing relating to their matrimonial affairs." 

If this be good reasoning, may not married men be the 
only safe and secure observers of all the phases of bachelor 
life? Certain it is, all bachelors have their hobbies, and 
however unfair witnesses as to matrimonial affairs may be 
husband and wife, surely no bachelor will turn state's evi- 
dence and "peach" on himself and his "pals." 

If, then, it is an allowable presumption that a married man 
is the best witness as to bachelors' ways and character, the 
speaker who stands before you claims a right to the floor 
from having married as early and as hard as the law allows, 
from having stayed married with a persistence worthy of a 
better cause, and, furthermore, from having been a parent 
as often and as fast as indulgent nature and an over-kind 
Providence would permit. 

Having proven to you my right to life, liberty and the 
pursuit of my subject, and that I am not a total misfit, I pro- 
ceed to add my mite (I trust it may not prove a subtraction 
from it) to the splendor of this great event in the life of our 
beloved fraternity. 

According to my observations there are all sorts of bach- 
elors as there are all sorts of benedicts : 

The timid bachelor who starts at the rustle of a gown — a 
shyness that generally comes from thinking too much of 
one's self; the bold, bad bachelor who rushes in where 
angels fear to tread ; the society bachelor whose chief glory 



8o SFRAGUE'S SPEECHES. 

lies in the creases in his trousers and the amount and va- 
riety of his twaddle; the irreproachable bachelor for whom 
God forgot to make, and has since declared he never will 
make, a fit partner ; the gastronomic bachelor to whom the 
proper turn of a beefsteak and the correct art of dining out 
is the chief end of man ; the disappointed bachelor who is 
a prey to the blear-eyed old fable that a man can love but 
once (which every college boy knows to be false), who, sit- 
ting down in the ashes of some old love, refuses to do the 
Phoenix act or be resurrected until about 10:30 p. m. in 
life some sugar-cured old maid gets on her skates and glides 
nimbly over the icy indifference of his exterior into his little 
dried-up heart ; the promiscuous bachelor, so spread out in 
his affections and consequently so thin in places that the 
dear girls all see through him, and for whom I adapt rather 
awkwardly a verse of Owen Meredith : 

The man who seeks one woman in life, and but one. 
May hope to win her before life be done; 
But he who seeks all women, wherever he goes. 
Only reaps from the hopes that around him he sows 
A harvest of bitter regrets. 

Then there is the Beta Bachelor and here my Pegasus 
sprouts his wings and tail feathers. 

The Creator has left no department of his universe with- 
out some examples of his best workmanship. He made 
man, and to show what he could do were he to try he made 
an Abraham, a Moses, a Solomon, a Confucius, a Socrates. 
He made woman, and you remember the good Book says : 
"The Lord made the earth in six days and said it was good 



SFRAGUE'S SPEECHES. 8i 

and rested." He made man and said he was good and rested. 
He then made woman out of the rib of a man, but no men- 
tion is made of his resting, and there has been no rest for 
God or man ever since. He made woman, and to show what 
he could do he made your mother and mine, and the mothers 
of our children. He made the girls — God bless them — and 
as the tip top of creation in this line he made the Beta girls, 
"pure and lovely, passing fair, who with brightest smiles 
enliven all our way." He made the forests and he made the 
giant trees of the Sierra Nevadas. He made the nations, 
and to prove his skill he made this glorious land of ours. He 
made, I verily believe, the college fraternity, and to show 
what he could do at his best he made as the joy and inspira- 
tion of ten thousand hearts and lives, our Beta Theta Pi. 
He made Betas, and as models he made a Knox, a Hepburn, 
a Lozier, a Ransom. Then to show that he didn't care much 
what he made, he made bachelors. Then some woman said, 
"God made him, let him pass for a man." Then for fear 
every one would pass and nobody would order him up, he 
took a brand-new piece of clay and by working overtime 
made the best bachelor he knew how, and putting him on 
the shelf to dry, he called it a Beta Bachelor. And he has 
been on the shelf ever since — and for that matter he has been 
dry ever since. 

The Beta Bachelor is the ideal bachelor. His blushes are 
not the hectic flush of the dissipated dilletante, but the ex- 
ternal decoration of a pure and guileless heart ; his conver- 
sation evidences a cultured mind; his conduct betrays na- 
ture's gentleman. His handshake expresses the heart of 
good fellowship. 



82 SPR AGUE'S SPEECHES. 

You may say I am drawing the long bow, and that re- 
minds me: Two boys stood on a street corner disputing. 
A benevolent stranger overheard it and said, "Tut, tut, boys, 
don't quarrel, settle your differences; what is it all about 
anyway?" One boy spoke up, saying : "He said his grand- 
father was eighteen feet high and I said, 'Oh, what a whop- 
per. He couldn't go in a door, or sit at a table or lie in a 
bed, nor nothin'." Then I said, 'but maybe he could, it de- 
pends on where he grow'd. Out in California they have 
trees 300 feet high and 100 feet around, and my grandfather 
killed a snake out there three miles long.' And he said, 
'Oh, what a whopper.' " "Well, boys,'' said the stranger, 
"better harmonize your differences ; can't you each come 
down a little?" Then the tall grandfather boy looked sul- 
len, and the long snake boy said, "Then let him take oflf 
twelve feet from the height of his grandfather and I'll take 
a mile off my snake, and maybe we can agree." And so I 
say if my brothers who preceded me will take something 
off the enthusiasm of their statements I will agree to abate 
a little of mine ; but I don't want to compromise. The 
Beta bachelor lacks but one thing. "Capital composition," 
said Joshua Reynolds, the great painter, examining a pic- 
ture he wished to praise, "correct drawing, color, tone, 
Hghts and shadows — excellent; but it wants — THAT," 
snapping his fingers. The Beta bachelor is clean, he is 
sober, he is cultured, he is whole-hearted, but he wants — 
THAT. And "that" is about 150 pounds of Beta femi- 
ninity. 

Perhaps it will not be amiss to say a word to the bachelor 
lover who, like a ripe berry on the sunny side of the bush, 



SPRAGUE'S SPEECHES. Z^ 

is about to fall into the basket. With all due respect to the 
girl of your choice, let me picture to you the girl that you 
need. I quote from Dr. John Hall : 

"The girl you need is the girl who is mother's right- 
hand; the girl who can cuddle the little ones next best to 
her mother ; smooth out the tangles in the domestic skein 
when things get twisted ; the girl whose father takes com- 
fort in her for something better than beauty, and whose 
big brothers are proud of her for something that out-ranks 
the ability to dance or shine in society; good girls, — girls 
who are sweet right straight out from the heart to the 
lips; innocent, pure and simple girls, with less knowledge 
of sin and duplicity and evil doing at twenty than the pert 
little school girl of ten has, all too often ; careful and prudent 
girls who think enough of the generous father who toils to 
maintain them in comfort and of the gentle mother who 
denies herself that they may have pretty things, to count 
the cost and draw the line between the essentials and the 
non-essentials ; unselfish girls who are eager to be a joy and 
comfort in the home rather than an expense and useless 
burden ; girls with hearts that are full of tenderness and 
sympathy, with tears that flow for other people's ills, and 
smiles that light outward their own beautiful thoughts. 
You can find "lots" of clever girls and brilliant girls and 
witty girls ; what you bachelors want is a consignment of 
jolly girls, warm-hearted and impulsive girls ; kind and en- 
tertaining to their own folk, and with little desire to shine 
in this garish world. With such a girl by your side, life 
would freshen up for you as the weather does under the 
spell of a summer shower." 



84 SFJR AGUE'S SPEECHES. 

I have wondered, in the Beta Bachelor's presence, how 
the lone traveler can be so genial. In times past, my home 
has been a favored wayside inn whose doors have swung 
wide open to the Beta Bachelor, wandering and footsore, 
and I betray no confidences when T say that in the quiet 
glow of my library fire, amid domestic tranquility the most 
seductive, I have seen the veil of the temple rent in twain, 
and have got a glimpse within the Holy of Holy to see the 
sacred fire still burning upon the altar. All Beta Bachelors, 
my sisters, have not hung their harps upon the willows, for 
I have heard its strings vibrate with such tremulous ten- 
derness and such plaintive sweetness that I have thought 
the very genius of love had touched them, and as I have 
helped him don his overcoat and seen him turn with a shud- 
der of reluctance out into the lonely night, I have wondered 
what in the deuce the matrimonial bureaus could be doing 
with so much good material floating around unused. And 
as I have watched his retreating form I have said, "poor 
fellow, he's got it and don't know it," then I have shut the 
door and with a sad yet thankful heart I have blown out the 
gas and gone to my wife and little ones. 

But what if I were to openly proclaim, "There are no 
Beta Bachelors!" Will you question the assertion? 

Let me recall to the mind of each one of you other days 
— days perhaps long gone by. Do I not see you in all the 
strength and beauty of your young manhood standing "at 
an altar, sending love's sweet incense high," your heart 
swelling with mingled pride and anticipation, and at your 
side a vision 



SPR AGUE'S SPEECHES. 85 

Fair, oh so fair, 

Thou art fairer, dear Beta, 

Than earth knows beside. 

Do I not catch from your lips strong vows of eternal 
fidelity to her 

"Long as time shall last or earth shall have a day." 

Do I not see you, in the presence of your brothers, regis- 
tering a promise in High Heaven that you will 

Cherish no love for another 

Tho' queenly and charming she be. 

Have you forgotten this union and this solemn marriage 
vow? Then you wrote home about it; parents in some 
cases rebelled, but sooner or later came the "Bless you, my 
children." You held high carnival in the care-free heyday 
of your young married life, and be it said to the credit of 
both of you, you have courted and loved her more as the 
years have gone on. 

Then the children came ! What? I, a staid old bachelor 
with wife and children? Yes ; and it is a wise father that 
knoweth his own children. The children came. They 
crept into your heart by day and by night. They filled 
every crevice of your life. They warmed you with their 
kisses. They drove the cares of the day into the blessed 
oblivion of the night, — your children — yours by the fair 
bride you took at that altar in the other days. Children of 
fancy — of dreams — of memory — yes, but none the less yours 
and hers. They bear the marks of their lineage; they are 



86 SFRAGUE'S SPEECHES. 

different from other men's children. You would not ex- 
change them for theirs, and when the evening of life comes 
on and you fall to musing before the dying embers you will 
hear the voices of these children. You will hear them when 
other sounds grow dim, and I verily believe that, clear and 
distinct above the harmonies that will greet you on the 
other shore, you will hear the sweet voices of these bright, 
beautiful, memory children of Beta Theta Pi. 



DOES THE CHURCH SHRINK FROM CONTACT 
WITH PRACTICAL LIFE? 

DELIVERED BEFORE THE "BUSINESS MEN'S CLASS" 

OF THE FIRST CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH, 

DETROIT, NOVEMBER lo, 18g6. 

The question is one that demands an understanding of its 
terms. Let us try to reach that understanding. 

In the first place, "church," I take it, means the great 
body of Christ's followers, the world over and of whatever 
name, as it exists to-day. "Contact" means touch, — 
physical touch as the outgrowth of a desire to be near, to 
deal with, to associate and mingle with. In a sense, all life 
is "practical life," so I presume by this expression is meant 
REAL life as opposed to ideal or imaginative life ; in other 
words, the life of the valley and the plain, of hard work-a- 
day facts and men, human joy and sorrow, pain and pleas- 
ure, success and failure, as opposed to the mountain top of 
superhuman exaltation, joy, peace, such as the three dis- 
ciples found on the Mount of Transfiguration which they 
longed should be their eternal abiding place, forgetful of 
their brethren in the valley and of the duties the Master had 
laid upon them. "Shrink" means draw back, retire, as from 
danger; recoil physically because of fear, horror, distrust. 
One scarcely shrinks because of indifference, but there must 
be mental fear, horror, distrust or distaste. Such was the 

87 



88 SPR AGUE'S SPEECHES. 

shrinking of the Pharisee who passed by on the other side, 
withdrawing himself from the presence of a distasteful sight, 
so different from the unorthodox Samaritan in the story. 
The subject has relation, I take it, to church methods, ideas 
and work. So the question, robbed of its general terms, 
may be said to be, Do the great body of Christ's followers, 
taken as a whole, recoil or draw away from actual sympathy 
and direct touch with common, every-day life and its prob- 
lems? 

The question is an important one for the church to con- 
sider because men are asking it on the rostrum, in the press, 
on the street, in the shop, and some are doing so in the 
pulpit. Only yesterday, sitting in a barber's chair, my 
barber said to me, "If the Christian people as a whole in 
this country would stand up solidly against the saloon, it 
would be robbed of most of its cursed fruits, if not alto- 
gether banished." It is a very general complaint, on the 
part of non-church people, that the church manifests no 
sympathy with the common, every-day problems of life. In 
this case my barber would have admitted to me that the 
church taught temperance, that the Sunday school taught 
temperance, that most Christian men were temperance men, 
but does the church as a whole shrink from direct and im- 
mediate contact with this evil? To make it clear, you say, 
in the abstract, that our religion teaches justice, that there- 
fore, least of all, should a Christian church owe money. So 
when at the end of the year a debt appears, you wise men 
get together, you face the evil, you devise a plan, you pro- 
pose it to the church, your church rises to a man and you 



SPR AGUE'S SPEECHES. 89 

put an end to the evil. The outsider sees the problems of 
poverty, of dependence, of crime, of intemperance, of mu- 
nicipal reform arising out of actual conditions subversive 
of morality and Christianity, degrading to the community 
and to every individual in it, threatening the perpetuity of 
good government and the welfare of his children, and he 
looks to this great engine — the greatest engine for good the 
world has ever seen — and asks. How do you meet these 
questions? With the sword of the Lord? or not at all? 

So the question is an important one. The good name of 
the church and of its glorious Founder is at stake. If such 
things are not for the church as a whole to act upon, but 
for the individual as an individual, is it for the church as a 
whole to instruct the individual through its ministers in 
these matters? The question is well worth the asking, and 
answers will be various. Our question is a direct one and 
asks for a yes or a no. 

In answering this question we inevitably think of the 
churches within our observation. We think of our friend 
Wood's church and we say, no, she doesn't shrink at any- 
thing ; we think of some of our Fort street or JeflFerson ave- 
nue, and possibly some of our Woodward avenue churches, 
and we hesitate before saying, no. But our range of vision 
is limited and, at most, our answer must be a matter of 
opinion, largely biased by our feelings and by what we have 
read, and our reading is liable to lead us to extremes of an- 
tagonism to the church unless we take great care. I have 
for about a year been the leader of a Bay View Reading 
Circle — one of the integral parts of the Methodist Chau- 
tauqua. One of our studies was sociology and the readings 



9© SPR AGUE'S SPEECHES. 

put into the hands of the thousands of young men and 
young women pursuing this study had the following head- 
ings : 

1. There is a social problem. In the last analysis it is 
none other than the distribution of wealth. 

2. Christianity is the cause of our social problems. 

3. It is the failures of Christians that perpetuate and in- 
tensify social problems. 

4. The failures of Christians are due to the failures of 
Christian preachers. 

This is a severe arraignment, and a great church through 
one of its agencies substantially admits its truth when it 
places this book in the hands of the young. 

If it is so, and if the church admits it, that our social 
problems are problems because of the laziness, the indififer- 
ence, un-Christlikeness of the church, then, in the name of 
all that is good, let the church prostrate itself before God 
and ask His forgiveness and rise to a new manner of life. 

My own answer to the question asked is that the church 
is slowly and laboriously becoming more practical in its 
work, that it does shrink from contact with daily life and its 
problems, but that it is coming more and more into sym- 
pathy with them. I do not think, in all fairness, a yes or a 
no can be given to the question. 

One trouble with us nowadays when we come to reform 
things and to philosophize and to criticize, is that we be- 
come impatient. We want to see the old world remade in 
a minute. We forget that God was working away on this 
planet several years before we came here, and that He will 



SFRAGUE'S SPEECHES. 91 

be here several years after we leave. "The mills of the gods 
grind slowly," etc. It took many thousand years of error 
and sin to prepare for Christ, and the student of history will 
tell you that the cause of evil was never so triumphant in the 
history of the world as it was the night when the star rested 
over Bethlehem. One need be only a casual reader of his- 
tory to know that since that first Christmas night this world 
has every morning been bathed in a clearer, purer sunshine, 
and the conscientious student of history will tell you that 
Christ working through His visible church upon the hearts 
of men has brought about the transformation. 

If you want a hopeful, joyful religion in your heart, and a 
philosophy that will bear you up amid the clash of conflict- 
ing opinions and the threatened ruin of existing conditions, 
read the history of the church of Christ and with it the 
history of civilization and note the men who have led in all 
the onward movements of mind and matter. You will find 
them God-fearing men of the church of God, inspired by 
His loving word. 

The Christian church, I hold, is doing more to better the 
conditions and the daily life of men and women, the world 
over, than all other agencies combined. The power and 
effectiveness of the church is exerted in ways the world can 
not well measure — hence the reason for so much unjust 
criticism. The method of the church is Christ's method. 
Men charge Christ with favoring intemperance, folly, 
slavery, etc., etc. Why? Because He uttered no philippics 
against these things. He came eating and drinking. It is 
remarkable how often we find Him sitting at a feast. His 



92 SPR AGUE'S SPEECHES. 

companions at such feasts were not very orthodox. He 
preserved a poor, outcast woman of the town from insult 
by bidding her stay at His side and rebuking her assailants. 
He urged servants to obey their masters. The church has 
largely been subject to the same criticism — unjust to a de- 
gree, because of a misconception of Christ and His teach- 
ing. Modern reform strikes at the offspring of evil, while 
Christ and Christianity seek to slay the parent of evil. At 
the root of all social problems lie great prmciples, great 
laws, great tendencies. It is here that Christ sought to 
work. Once you have made love the ruling motive of a 
man's life — love to God and his fellow-man — and you have 
solved a thousand problems for him; you have made him 
a steady force for good to himself, to his neighbor, to the 
State. All efifort at reform from other motives than those 
that lie at the basis of Christian character must of necessity 
be ephemeral in their results. The force exerted in this 
world toward better things is a constant, though slow- 
working force, — and such was the work of Jesus Christ. I 
believe that had Christ assumed to be the earthly king of 
the Jews He would have been accepted, and, as such, would 
have ruled the land of His fathers -nd, by His word, a new 
order of things would l:ave come about: Miracle would 
have followed miracle, Roman armies would have been 
pushed into the sea by an invisible hand; every leper in 
the broad land would have leaped with joy over a miracu- 
lous cure; every poverty-stricken Jew would have had 
plenty and to spare : but it did not so please God, and, at 



SPR AGUE'S SPEECHES. 93 

His horrible death, the Church of Jesus Christ, that stood 
about the foot of the cross, was John the beloved and a few 
women, — that's all. 

The Christian church must learn the lesson of patience. 
It has undertaken in times past to subdue the world — 
sometimes by the sword, the gallows, the whipping post, 
the pillory, the stocks, statutes written in blood, persecution, 
withdrawal into monasteries and shutting out the world 
while praying and fasting, long pilgrimages and horrible 
penances ; but God would not so have it. 

Through all this tribulation the Christian church has 
come purified into a new life — a life that is trying to save 
the world by teaching that individual character must lie 
at the basis of national and municipal character. 

Non-Christian philanthropy is largely inefficient. That 
is so because it is spasmodic. I saw the other day that the 
wonderful (wonderful while it lasted) "slumming cam- 
paign" set on foot by certain fashionable elements in our 
great cities was rapidly losing its force, and that the enter- 
prise was falling back again into the hands of the faithful 
Christian workers who had done it for years before this 
world-heralded project was started. Christian influence 
and work is all-pervasive. The world complains, and 
largely so because it does not see this work. Much Chris- 
tian work is done — and done purposely — in secret, with no 
purpose and no desire for notoriety. Great public bene- 
factions and efforts for the amelioration of men, if in all 
cases not in the hands of professed Christians, are yet 
inspired by Christian teaching. A Christian mother, long 



94 SPRAGUE'S SPEECHES. 

since dead, is often back behind the scenes, when some 
great public benefactor startles the community with some 
good and generous deed. 

The church does not do all she may do, but she is and 
will remain the greatest force in settling the practical 
problems of the day. Ask the associated charities of the 
city whence comes their money and help. Why one 
church, in our city, — a small churcn not on one of our 
great thoroughfares — gave more money last year to the 
poor and the needy than all the lodges of Masons and Odd- 
fellows in this city combined, and yet this one virtue of 
charity is the special pride of these orders. 

The churches are often unwise in their expenditures and 
in their work, and there are many totally useless churches 
whose Christianity is as dead as a stone. There is money 
enough spent for fancy music in four or five of our churches 
to put a Sunday school and a church in every Godless 
neighborhood in our county, — which I happen to know 
is one of the most church forsaken counties — outside of 
Detroit — in the United States. 

We send dollars by the thousands to foreign lands, and 
yet almost within sound of the chimes of city churches are 
whole townships in this county without a Sunday school, 
and not in them a man who could lead one in prayer. 

The church is a human instrument and, so, fallible. It 
has not reached the height of its efficiency, but I hope it 
will never get away from its first duty, — to preach Christ 
crucified and the individual soul's relation to its Creator, for 



SPR AGUE'S SPEECHES. 95 

when it does do this it is in a fair way of practicing the old 
experiment of trying to uproot the tree by snufhng at its 
blossoms. 

Does the church shrink from contact with practical 
life? It does, to a degree. It does not to the extent com- 
monly supposed. It strikes at evil, but not in man's way — 
in God's. 



NEWSPAPER ETIQUETTE. 

WRITTEN IN BOSTON, TO BE DELIVERED A T THE AN- 
NUAL BANQUET OF THE MICHIGAN PRESS ASSOCIA- 
TION, IN HOTEL CADILLAC, DETROIT, FEB., iSgj, 
AND READ BEFORE THA T BODY. 

Gentlemen of the Michigan Press Association : — 

"Newspaper Etiquette" requires of me at this time that 
I prepare for you a paper to be read at your Tuesday after- 
noon meeting. I had expected to be present with you and 
deliver these words in person, but the whirligig of time has 
bobbed around so unaccountably of late that, while fully 
anticipating meeting with you, I am in Boston, and cannot 
do so. 

Were I a more distinguished citizen than I am I would 
say nothing by way of excuse, for it is the privilege of 
eminent people to give no reason for their actions, but, 
being of little account myself, I must say something or 
forever be accused of an unpardonable discourtesy to 
brethren of the craft. 

What I shall say must take the place of what I ought to 
say on the subjects, "Newspaper Etiquette" and "The 
Benefits of Newspaper Advertising," both of which sub- 
jects have been assigned me. Whether I can treat the two 
subjects in one paper remains to be seen. My grandfather, 

96 



SPEAGUE'S SPEECHES. 97 

so tradition says, could write with both hands at one time 
and on two distinct subjects, his hands moving in opposite 
directions, his eyes closed and his feet in repose. 

I have always prided myself on having inherited some 
of his freak characteristics, and as not the least important 
of these, — the power of writing in such a way that the most 
expert critics could not identify the subject or classify the 
idea. 

This happy faculty, not possessed by many outside of the 
newspaper fraternity, will permit me to present my paper 
on "Newspaper Etiquette" and respond to the toast "The 
Benefits of Newspaper Advertising," at one and the same 
time. 

I reached Boston via the Michigan Central lines, Friday 
afternoon. I deem it nothing but the commonest kind of 
common "newspaper etiquette" to acknowledge the fact 
that I took this route to Boston, as we, the most of us at 
least, are indebted to the Michigan Central for the privilege 
of being here to-night. I deem it also an act of common 
"newspaper etiquette" to say that the farther east one goes 
the larger become the holes in the table cloths and the more 
impudent the waiters in the dining cars. 

Almost any one, not riding on a pass, in a Wagner coach 
east of the Alleghanies, would testify that Wagner wrote 
the Gotterdamerung. Never until newspaper men are 
treated with proper consideration will these Wagnerian 
abuses be righted. 

But I must hurry on to my subject, for I have only 



98 SPR AGUE'S SPEECHES. 

reached Boston, and, as I found this morning on reading 
the Boston Herald, I am yet a long ways off from news- 
paper etiquette. 

I had almost forgotten to request that this response of 
mine be read by a good reader. I do not much care who 
reads it, excepting J. E. Beal and W. J. Hunsaker. There 
is a sort of a Dr. Chase's Receipt Book tone to Beal's voice 
that I do not want injected into my remarks. Hunsaker 
won a tidy at a pedro party at my house a few weeks ago, 
and I am quite sure he could not forbear closing some of 
my most effective periods with "This has been a great year 
for the Journal." Indeed, when I come to think about it, 
this year has been a great year for us all. We never had 
such great deficits, never worked at such a great disadvan- 
tage; in fact, never made such failures where heretofore 
we have succeeded as in the year just passed. I don't want 
the able and popular author of this now famous saying to 
get an opportunity to insert any such ambiguities into my 
speech. 

As I was saying, I reached Boston and had soon got on 
the outside of a four dollar and thirty-five cent a la carte 
dinner at "Young's," as a necessary penalty for which my 
wife and I have since Friday been living on toast and eggs. 
We hope to even up or rather down to a fair average price, 
about next Wednesday, at which time we shall have another 
meal. 

"Newspaper etiquette" was beautifully exemplified yes- 
terday when the advertising manager of the "Youth's Com- 
panion" sent up his card, and a half hour later we were 



SPR AGUE'S SPEECHES. 99 

riding in a crowded car, our friend swinging his arm, like 
the hand of a dial, now to one point of the compass, now to 
the other, advertising, as was his business, to the whole 
crowd that we were rural visitors, and for the life of me I 
couldn't look intelligent, for I felt like a bridegroom from 
Yapville. Don't, I beg of you, beloved brethren, insist on 
identifying every blamed thing you speak of when showing 
your visitors the sights. If I can't see a ten-story building 
without having to sight along the arm and index finger 
of a long drawn out, though friendly, vade mecum, I will 
try to stumble along through to life's end without having 
seen it. And is there anything that more aggravates a 
man who has been married twelve years, and has had four 
children and forty-three changes of servant girls, than to 
be taken for a bridegroom just picked? 

I beg of you, too, don't wear a silk hat and new kid 
gloves when you come east. Your wife may insist upon 
it, but I give you a pointer: You will do more business 
and eat oftener if you go dressed like yourself with just a 
suspicion of home smut on your collar and a man's hat 
on your head. 

The Youth's Companion building is a wonderful monu- 
ment of a wonderful success. I was led to exclaim, as we 
approached the massive five-story pile, what do you do 
inside that great building besides publish the Youth's Com- 
panion? Your paper is no bigger than some of our Mich- 
igan country weeklies, that are edited, printed and pub- 
lished in the room at the head of the stairs in the only 
two-story building in town. 

"Nothing," came the reply. 



loo SFE AGUE'S SPEECHES. 

"Seems to me it takes an all-fired lot of room to do 
nothing in," said I. 

"A great many have made that remark," said he. Then 
that bridegroom feeling began to set in again, 

Mr. Ford, who is now an old man, is the general-in-chief 
of this great establishment. "Perry Mason & Co.," pub- 
lishers of the Youth's Companion, is a fiction. Mr. Ford 
bought out the original owner many years ago, I am told. 
Then mail came addressed to the original owner and to the 
new owner, and there was a general mix up. So the name 
"Perry Mason & Co." was invented in order that all the 
mail might come to one name. This very lucid explana- 
tion was obtained by me first-hand and is reliable. I 
learn that the immense success of the Youth's Companion 
is owing to the fact that throughout its history there have 
been no side issues to divide the interest of the publishers. 
The concern publishes nothing but the Youth's Com- 
panion. Mr. Ford says no man can make the greatest 
success of anything whose interest is divided. 

I pray you gentlemen who are trying at one and the 
same time to publish papers and to support your families, 
to remember this. If you want to succeed in either line, 
give up the other, 

I was particularly struck by several things I noticed in 
the home of this prosperous paper. First, the absolute 
cleanliness everywhere from the engine room to the roof. 
The men who stood at the cases were to my somewhat 
distorted vision scrupulously clean. Not a scrap of paper 
lay on the floor. Not a thing out of place. The presses — 



SPR AGUE'S SPEECHES. xoi 

a score in number, all giant affairs, arranged in two im- 
posing rows, would fire the heart of a true craftsman with 
the enthusiasm of battle. Then the superhuman monster 
that takes the printed sheets, collects them in proper order, 
folds them, covers and stitches them and delivers them 
folded to the mailer — a greedy, ambitious, beautiful beast 
that has driven from the building a room full of bright- 
eyed, busy girls, who used to run those half a hundred 
stitching machines that stand there in a row silent in that 
place forever — that has emptied those long rows of chairs, 
pushed under so many tables, where sat the scores of young 
girls whose expert fingers caught up and folded in an 
incredibly short time the more than half a million copies 
a week of this great weekly. 

"What is to become of these people," I exclaimed, "that 
we are fast driving out of our factories?" 

"It's brain that tells, now," was my only answer. 

"For three years we have been working to perfect this 
great machine, and we have it now. It's quicker, cheaper, 
cleanlier, better than the old way. We shall soon have a 
pair of them." 

In fact, duplicate machinery is the rule. Duplicate pairs 
of boilers, duplicate engines, duplicate presses, — a fortune 
spent in guarding against the slightest accident that might 
delay the issuing of this great American paper. The 
Ladies' Home Journal, a monthly, goes to press six weeks 
in advance of its date of issue to get its three-fourths of a 
million papers into the hands of its readers. The Youth's 
Companion must meet the demand of a half million or more 



102 SPRAGUE'S SPEECHES. 

once every week. This paper takes no questionable adver- 
tising; indeed, no advertising matter under the head of 
patent nostrums and such like ; makes no contracts to give 
special positions, — I know this by experience — and is very 
particular in the matter of black-face display. It built its 
circulation largely in the good old-fashioned way of giving 
premiums, and more lately by extensive advertising at 
certain seasons. Fifteen thousand additional copies of the 
Thanksgiving number have just now been run off to supply 
the demand made by 15,000 new subscribers more than 
was counted on as coming from a certain line of advertising 
recently done. At this — the dull — season about 500 sub- 
scriptions a day are received. 

I was greatly interested in the premium department, 
which occupies a whole floor, and is like to an immense 
store in itself. The aim is to give for one new subscriber 
who pays $1.75 a premium that costs 50 cents. I was 
shown a handsome two-jeweled nickel watch, guaranteed 
for three years, that is given for one new name and 50 
cents, indicating that the cost price of the watch to the 
company is $1.00. My friend tells me that by paying cash 
and buying in immense quantities in otherwise dull seasons 
the paper manages to get its goods at ridiculously low 
prices. 

I also visited on this same day the largest advertising 
agency in New England, and the oldest in the country, and 
was shown a wonderful system of records. I can't take 
the time to explain, but I now know how it is the country 
weekly asks $10.00 for space and gets 82 cents. 



SPR AGUE'S SPEECHES. 103 

I have the secret. I got it when the manager's back was 
turned, and by the aid of a very ambitious and interesting 
little lady assistant in the office. 

But, gentlemen of the Michigan Press Association, I di- 
gress, and I imagine you are feeling much as the old 
Boston lady did who died and went to heaven. Some one 
asked her how she liked heaven. "Well, it's not Boston." 

So you may say all this is well enough, but it isn't 
"newspaper etiquette." Well, so it isn't, but I have at least 
exemplified a kind of etiquette not very common nowadays ; 
I have given an excuse for my absence, and have done 
what I could, writing at a crowded table in a hotel office, 
somewhat weary and ill at ease from staying up late o' 
nights and eating Limburger cheese. 



THE DEAD DEBTOR. 

Horace somewhere says : 

We shall not all die. 

In other words, I suppose, 

His debts go marching on. 

Did you ever notice what a Hvely stir there always is 
among a man's creditors the moment he dies? Every debt, 
young and old, is at the wake. Old debts come hobbling 
in that ought to be ashamed of being alive, demanding a 
front seat and shuffling aside the younger mourners. 

Is it possible a dead debtor is a more accommodating 
one than a live one? Sometimes. I have waited years 
to collect of some hide-bound old debt conjurer, and finally 
got satisfaction only by the route of the probate court. 
And how delightful is the sensation when one, after years 
of battling with a live debtor, is turned suddenly into the 
rich pastures of an estate with no one to hinder or make 
afraid. No wonder all the old cripples in the debt museum 
leap up with new life. And what an immense vitality a 
man's debts do possess. Outlive them? It can't be done. 
An old debt may outlaw ; may become a carbuncle on the 
face of decent society; may be shunned, ridiculed and 
hated ; but the old tattered note, with its faded ink and gov- 
ernment stamp and plastered back, will limp down the 
avenues of time and meet us at the end. It would seem 

104 



SPRAGUE'S SPEECHES. 105 

to have as many lives as a cat, and like a cat, no matter 
how hard or far it is dropped, it will light on its feet, and 
come up smiling on the next occasion. Death does not 
end all. The "I promise" is a living, breathing thing, and 
demands fulfilment, when the hand that held the pen is 
pQwerless to fulfil. The spirit and the purpose of the man 
lires, and these the law attempts to carry out. Wise law I 
Beneficent law! Better, indeed, than the man himself, 
o^ten! You make us brave to meet the dead debtor. No 
niore promises to break ; no more savage encounters ; no 
more weary waiting on door steps; no more hunting in 
tiie byways and hedges, to come back, time and again, tired 
ajid discouraged. 

The law opens the door, and says what the live debtor 
promised and failed to perform, the law will see that the 
dbad debtor fulfils. First protecting the widow and chil- 
aien, it tenderly cares for "the man with the bill," and, for 
tljat, all honor to the law, and thanks to a kind Providence, 
vjio has forever made it possible for the dead debtor to be 
nore civil, in many cases, than the live one, and easier to 
hkndle. 



AROUND OUR CHAPTER FIRE. 

AN EVENING IN THE COLLEGE FRATERNITY 
''CHAPTER HOUSE." 

Our chapter fire is not always bright. Perhaps we shculd 
not always expect the full, even glow. Discord and strife 
will creep in. To-night the flames flicker and cast ghastly 
shadows on the wall. Our fuel is poor; it sputters md 
sizzles on the hearth like angry demons. We poke it, £nd 
turn it, and hover about it, but still the cold and the wind 
creep in. We are not so merry and confident to-nig'ht. 
There is a lack of sympathy and that usual freedom of 
intercourse. We half suspect ourselves and our brotlers 
of disloyalty. There is no direct evidence of treason, )ut 
there is an indefinable something in the atmosphere hat 
chills us to the marrow. Our fuel, perhaps, is not veil- 
seasoned, or is rotten at the core. We are inclined to sek 
for the blame elsewhere than in ourselves, and insteac of 
falling heartily to work to find better fuel we satisfy cur- 
selves by piling on more of the same sort, in the false bdief 
that it is more fuel that we want. We try a song, bvt it 
sounds so weird and blends so inharmoniously with ;he 
whistle of the wind that we do not repeat the attempt. 31d 
Tab wanders about from place to place in search of a wrm 
spot on which to take her ease, and the passerby huries 
on happy in the prospect of a brighter fire at home. To 

io6 



SFRAGUE'S SPEECHES. 107 

bid him enter and partake of our miserable hospitality is 
to meet with a pitying smile and an assurance that there is 
brighter cheer elsewhere. 

This can only result in added discomfort, and as, one by 
one, the tiny flames, hopeful at first, flicker and die out we 
fall into bitter reproachings. Then some of us put on our 
great coats, pull our caps over our ears, and, with scarce 
a regret or a word of parting, leave the chapter fire and 
push out into the night to seek warmth and shelter else- 
where. We who remain make a brief eflfort to fan the 
dying embers to a blaze; we pledge again our friendship 
and say we will stay as long as there remains a spark of 
light on our chapter hearth. No song or laughter rises 
above the gloom; no tales are told of conquest or fierce 
struggle to win laurels with which to crown the image of 
our patron god frowning down upon us now from his place 
above the mantel; no plans are laid for future victories; 
but our feverish fancy is busy with scornful faces at the 
windows and derisiye laughter. Perhaps we even hear 
amid these cruel voices those that once, 'mid brighter 
scenes, joined with ours about the chapter fire. Why 
longer shall we remain, for see, has not the chapter fire 
gone out? 

And then there comes a weird, fierce gust; the door 
bursts open, our single spark springs into a flame and 
catches, and in the open door stands one with outstretched 
arms and glowing face, who years before was wont to sit 
before our chapter fire, and has now returned from distant 
lands to visit once again the scenes of earlier years. We 



io8 SPR AGUE'S SPEECHES. 

spring to welcome him. We grasp him by the hand and 
his warm grip sends the blood again coursing through our 
veins. We take his hat and cane and help him to the seat 
reserved for honored guests. Our miserable surroundings 
are at once forgotten and scarcely do we notice in the joy 
at sight of this, an elder brother, that the flame has kindled 
into life. Old Tab has already curled herself upon the 
hearth preparing for a comfortable night. Again we draw 
the circle 'round our chapter fire. Our guest appears 
scarcely to notice how few our numbers and how feeble the 
blaze. It is comfort and beauty to him, dear old fellow, 
for, if not bright, it is the chapter fire ; and is it not brighter 
and warmer than the storm and darkness without? His 
mind is filled with warm memories and his heart with 
kindly emotion. His hair is white and his brow furrowed, 
but beneath the crust of winter is the verdure of spring. 
He is talkative to-night, and we join in hearty laughter at 
the recital of some chapter jest, and then again we sit silent 
and responsive as with tremulous tones he recalls another 
night when the chapter fire ran low. We feel the hot blood 
leap and the nerves tighten as with a burst of enthusiasm 
he recalls a well planned, bravely executed fight which 
ended in new fuel for our chapter fire, new voices in our 
songs and new friendships in our lives. But our chapter 
fire ! How it crackles and leaps ! How every nerve tingles 
with the warmth and the glow ! We sing : 

"From scenes of life's conflicts and trials we turn." 
That song reminds us of other days. Our fire is so well 
going now anything will sparkle and burn in it. We shall 
look better to our fuel hereafter. 



FOUR YEARS AND MORE HAVE GONE. 

WRITTEM IN i88s. FOUR YEARS AFTER LEA VING 
COLLEGE. 

Four years and more have gone; 

And yet it seems to me but yester-eve 

We lay on verdant crown of *"sugar-Ioaf" 

And listened to the dying notes of day, 

And watched with quiet joy the full-orb'd sun descend 

And twilight spread its mantle o'er the sleepy town 

That lay beneath embowered in the trees. 

Four years and more have gone; 

And yet we seem to linger still, we three, 

Upon the summit of that storied mound. 

The light has faded from the western sky, 

And 'round our grassy couch the misty night descends 

That brings with fading forms of life its silence sweet, 

As benediction to the passing day. 

Four years and more have gone; 

And still we seem to see that quiet scene 

From "sugar-loaf's" green top — the starry night — 

The misty outline of the Rac-co-on — 

The faint, uncertain lights that glimmer thro' the trees 

To guide belated wanderers 'long the grass-grown streets 

And sparkle cheer from Granville's peaceful homes. 

Four years and more have gone; 

And still we seem to gaze with quiet joy 

On old familiar scenes — and there above 

The universal canopy of leaves. 

On yonder neighb'ring hill-top 'gainst the northern sky, 

An hundred lights from college halls, where bends the pale 

And plodding student o'er his nightly task. 

* A hill-top near the college. 109 



no SPR AGUE'S SPEECHES. 

Four years and more have gone, 

Since we lay dreaming on that lofty couch. 

Hearts ne'er the chords of faith and friendship struck 

To clearer tones than midst these scenes did ours. 

Our hopes for future years we told without reserve, 

The loves and hates of each were to the others known. 

And joys and sorrows were a common lot. 

Four years and more have gone, 

Since last we looked into the star-lit sky 

And read our futures there — no thought of books 

Nor morrow's calls to face professors grave; 

For what within us burned was not in Physics found. 

Nor in the page of Homer, nor in Cicero, 

Nor in the science of the sun and stars. 

Four years and more have gone. 

Since there with boyish zeal we stirred the fires 

Of restless longing for the living foe 

And battles with the world of men and things. 

For dull-eyed, pale-faced men, the light of midnight oil; 

For us, the kindly freedom of unfettered night 

To let ambition soar to yonder skies. 

Four years and more have gone. 

Since, bound by ties of sympathy and love, 

— The current of respect ne'er crossed by strife — 

We planned and built our castles tall and fair, 

And felt already in our grasp expected fame. 

Then laughed to feel ambition quite annihilate 

The intervening years, as in a dream. 

Four years and more have gone. 

Since there in solemn night, our fortunes cast. 

We talked of homes our thrifty hands should raise. 

Enriched with vintage of a constant love; 

And how our princely incomes should be daily spent 

In travel, books, and just perhaps a little, too. 

In sport, with modicum of charity. 



SFHAGUE'S SPEECHES. iii 

Four years and more have gone, 

Since, poor in purse yet rich in heart, we said, — 

Should poverty the hand of either grasp 

Or chance deny the wealth of woman's love. 

The other two would draw before the cheerful fire 

The easy rocker for an honored guest, and fill 

His soul with wine of self-forgetfulness. 

Four years and more have gone. 

How many changes mark the flight of time! 

The three who there but yester-eve looked out 

On distant futures and the stars, are gone — 

Their couch upon the hill by other dreamers filled. 

On distant fields they fight the fight with living foes 

And build the homes their young ambitions reared. 

Four years and more have gone. 

The sun still sets beyond the western hill. 

The self same shadows of the evening fall. 

The self same misty line — the Rac-co-on; 

So in our hearts the self same love of yesterday, 

So in our distant homes the sweet and welcome thought 

That days and years, but nothing more, have gone. 



OUR FRIENDS,-THE ENEMY. 

DELIVERED AT A BANQUET AT THE HOTEL VICTORY, 

PUT-IN-BAY, OHIO, AT I HE CLOSE OF THE FIRST 

NATIONAL CONVENTION OF CREDIT MEN. 

[Note. — The toastmaster, in introducing the speaker, said that 
the credit-men had had some difficulty in choosing where to hold 
the next convention; that the Kansas City delegates had made their 
city out as so near Heaven that the choice had finally seemed to 
settle down as being between Heaven and Detroit] 

Mr. Toastmaster, Gentlemen and Ladies : — Had I been at 
the convention during the afternoon of the last day, when 
you decided upon a place for holding your next convention, 
you would not have decided to go to heaven, but you would 
have gone to — Detroit. Yesterday I left the convention at 
noon, bought a pair of white kid gloves and a clean collar, 
took the 3 o'clock train for Detroit, and while you were en- 
joying the sights and music at the Casino, I was standing 
at the hymeneal altar giving away in marriage one of De- 
troit's prettiest young women. As we were driving home 
after the ceremony my wife looked up at me out of a great 
mass of "frills and fixin's" and in her own sweet way, which 
no one outside of myself is permitted to know, said, "And 
to-morrow night at this time you will be giving yourself 
away." At this point the rattle of the carriage prevented 
further conversation. My wife has lived with me and my 
two children so long she has got "smart," and when we 
reached home I told her so. 



SPR AGUE'S SPEECHES. 113 

Whether or not I succeed in giving myself away to-night 
I shall ever feel a pride in having been honored with a place 
on the program of the first National Convention of Credit 
Men now being brought to a close on the beautiful island, 
famous for its historic surroundings, and in this great hotel, 
which in its very name symbolizes the achievements of this 
Convention. 

Let me say, gentlemen, as one who for years — though not 
a credit man — has labored for reform in collection and 
credit methods, that I hail this movement as the harbinger 
of a new day; not indeed a millennium of credits, for that I 
shall never see this side the eternal city, but as a day the 
roseate tints of whose morning are seen in the co-operation 
and good fellowship of credit managers, so long, if not at 
variance, at least strangers and indifferent to one another's 
welfare. 

As an editor only and therefore debarred from your mem- 
bership, I ask the privilege of extending across the line you 
have drawn, beyond which my feet must not pass, the hand 
of fellowship and congratulations, and with it to pledge you 
that my pen shall not be idle nor my voice silent in behalf 
of better men, better methods, and better laws, and what- 
ever concerns your best interests. 

Tho' outside the citadel, your watchman upon the wall, 
shall ever bear to you the tidings that I am fighting your 
battles under your flag and zealous for your ultimate 
triumph over incompetency and iniquity in mercantile life. 
Heaven speed the day of renewed business confidence that 
shall usher in a great revival of commercial honesty and fair 



114 SPRAGUE'S SPEECHES. 

dealing — a revival that our country needs as much as it 
needs a baptism of purity and common sense in our political 
life, and God knows how much it needs that. 

However, I promised not to be serious. That urbane 
Woolson Spice man* wrote me, "You know these credit 
men are likely to be very dry." "What?" I said, "and that, 
too, in Toledo?" "Bring your next Convention to Detroit 
and I will promise you a long wet spell." I promised not 
to be dry, but coming across the lake this morning, and 
what a glorious morning it was, and what a glorious old 
lake it is ! No wonder the British fought to keep it ! — com- 
ing across the lake this morning, I say, my friends did their 
best to wet my speech, and my lawyer friends who just hap- 
pened, you know, to be here at this Convention, have evi- 
denced such an overwillingness to help me keep it wet since 
we have reached the island that my sole anxiety for several 
hours past has been to get rid of it before it got too damp 
for good society. 

I was troubled much about a subject for my toast. At 
first I wrote the "pepper man" that not being a credit man 
I would talk on the subject "From Another Standpoint," 
and he could so word it in the program. The pepper fac- 
tory wrote back, "Do so by all means." I asked my wife 
(you see I think a great deal of my wife) if Mr. McMechcn 
seemed over enthusiastic on my choice of a subject. She 
thought a minute (something unusual for a woman to do) 
and said, "Here is a story I just read that may help you an- 
swer the question." "A lecturer approached a leading man 

*B. G. McMechen, credit-man of the Woolson Spice Co., who 
was chairman of the committee of arrangements. 



SPRAGUE'S SPEECHES. 115 

of a certain village with the question, 'How would your 
people like a lecture from me on Mt. Vesuvius?' 'Im- 
mensely,' he replied, 'they would much rather you would 
lecture on Mt. Vesuvius than in this village.' " 

I forthwith wrote the ginger mill that I thought my sub- 
ject a little misleading and that with his kind permission I 
would toast, "Our Friends, the Enemy," which being a 
somewhat inconsistent subject, meant nothing, and as I in- 
tended to say nothing it would be exactly appropriate. And 
yet, all sentences that appear inconsistent are not really so, 
as in the following instance : A gentleman inquired of an 
old white-haired fellow how he kept so hale and hearty. 
"Easy enough," he replied, "I always drink whisky and vote 
the Democratic ticket." "Ah, I see," said the other, "the 
two pizens neutralize each other." 

If I chose to talk credits I believe I could do so to the 
queen's taste, for no man here, I am sure, has had so rich 
and varied an experience in that line as I have had. Pardon 
me if I give you my biography at this point. 

At the age of 16 I was a lawyer's clerk and my business 
was to make up lawyers' reports on the merchants of my 
town for Dun and Bradstreet. That I did it well is evi- 
denced by the fact that no merchant in my town ever failed 
— to get all the goods he wanted while I was doing the 
guessing. Then for four years I studied Greek and trigo- 
nometry to prepare myself as a lawyer to better tell credit 
men whom to trust. Then as a lawyer for eight years I 
did free reporting in return for worthless collections, and I 
was satisfied in the knowledge that the reports I gave were 



ii6 SPRAGUE'S SPEECHES. 

as good as the collections I received. In the eight years I 
made over two thousand mercantile reports, received $2.44 
in money therefor, 223 postage stamps, twenty-three of 
which stuck so close to the paper I could not use them, 
three votes of thanks from inexperienced credit men who 
had not learned their business, and so many "kicks" that I 
early lost the count. After all my education in college 
Greek, not a single request was made for a report in that 
language. My reports were always scholarly, but they 
were no good. The business was delightful, but I had to 
quit it; the life was too rapid and meals were not frequent 
enough. So with an aching desire to reform the agencies I 
added to my immense legal practice an agency department, 
and after a little while I was experiencing the joy of asking 
my fellow lawyers for free reports, the reading of which 
reports and the tall lying I had to do in so transcribing them 
as to make them look to my subscribers like mercantile 
reports, and the wear and tear on my conscience incident to 
the nefarious business of robbing my fellow lawyer of his 
time and his postage with the promise that somehow, some- 
where, perhaps now, perhaps in eternity, he or his heirs 
(more likely his assigns) would get an outlawed collection 
in return for it, drove me into a decline. 

I then became an editor with a holy ambition to reform 
everybody. I was going to teach the lawyers that they were 
born for better business, to teach the agencies to do busi- 
ness on business principles and pay for what they got, and 
to teach credit men to insist upon more and better service 
and to pay for such service what it was worth. 



SPRAGUE'S SPEECHES. 117 

These are not my only qualifications for talking credit. 

I have granted credit and have been deceived, I have 
asked credit as often as the best of you and have been re- 
fused in more languages, perhaps, than are taught in the 
schools. But the subject is growing personal and I turn in 
another direction. 

Legislation, of which there has been much talk at this 
Convention, can do much, my friends, but "our friends, the 
enemy" are not to be gotten rid of so easily. Solomon was 
a very wise man and a great legislator, but he gave it as his 
opinion, after conferring with his credit men and comparing 
notes with the Queen of Sheba, that "sin sticks between 
buyer and seller." It stuck then, it sticks to-day, it will con- 
tinue to stick. Pardon me if I say that I take little stock in 
that seraphic vision that some of our Convention speakers 
have had when they tell us that they have seen the heavens 
roll back as a scroll and the debtor and creditor lying down 
together and a national association of credit men in the 
midst thereof. I am neither a pessimist nor an optimist, but 
I believe that so long as Almighty God allows the devil to 
run loose up and down the earth there will be important 
business on hand for the credit man and the lawyer, irre- 
spective of and in spite of all we can do, whether as individ- 
uals or as organizations. 

I cannot but say that with a national association of credit 
men on the one side, however dignified and able, and with 
my friend Wolfstein, who runs the clothing store up the 
street, and his wife and his wife's family on the other side, 



1 1 8 SPRA G UE'S SFEE CHES. 

I shall continue to put up my money on Wolfstein et al. 
Smooth-tongued credit men from New Orleans, with their 
hospitable Mardi Gras manners, their palmetto voices, and 
their lower Mississippi accents, all of which is indescrib- 
ably pleasant to me; western credit men, with a courage 
which, in the face of grass-hopper, drouth, cyclones and 
Dolly Varden politics, seems to me a sublime proof of the 
omnipotence of the Creator; eastern credit men with their 
courtly manners, their Coney Island tastes and their store 
clothes — these all may sit in sweet and holy converse 
beneath the willows that snade the muddy banks of the 
Maumee, almost in sight of the most beautiful city on the 
continent — Detroit, the City of the Straits — and yet — and 
yet — while this is going on Isaacstine is changing his sign, 
Gilligan is paying back to his wife dot money he loaned 
from her forty-two years ago when she was rich, O'Riley is 
folding his tent like the Arab and silently stealing away. 

Then here is to our friends, the enemy — the men who 
give us employment, who sharpen our wits, who provide 
the winds of adversity that, blowing upon us, strengthen 
our business judgment and make us the clear-headed and 
intelligent fellows we know we are. 

I am a debtor myself, — a debtor out of jail. I made 
everything I have by getting into debt. Debt may be hon- 
orable, and let us see to it that while legislating against the 
dishonest debtor we protect the honest one, and be sure that 
the gun we load for the dishonest one may never have to be 
loaded against ourselves. 



SPR AGUE'S SPEECHES. 119 

Convene, organize, legislate, but in all your self-satisfac- 
tion over organization, do not forget that organization itself 
is valueless unless there goes with it the sympathy of our 
hearts and the work of our hands, and in all our roseate 
dreaming of the future let us never forget Gilligan's wife 
and the money she loaned Gilligan forty-two years ago. 



THE LAW AND THE SCHOOLMASTER. 

ABRIDGMENT OF AN ADDRESS DELIVERED IN THE 

SUMMER OF i8g2 BEFORE A CONVENTION 

OF TEACHERS. 

The teachers among my audience will put me down at 
once as ignorant of at least one-half of my subject. But if 
any such will confess to a like ignorance as to the other 
half, I shall feel that we can proceed on good terms, follow- 
ing the example of certain learned judges when the address 
to the Queen at the opening of the royal courts was under 
consideration : One very eminent judge of appeals objected 
to the phrase in the address, "Conscious as we are of our 
own shortcomings — " "I am not conscious of my own 
shortcomings," he said, "and if I were, I should not be so 
foolish as to say so;" whereupon a learned lord justice 
blandly observed, "Suppose we say, Conscious as we are of 
each other's shortcomings." 

What I know about teaching would probably form about 
as interesting and instructive a disquisition as Greeley's 
"What I Know About Farming," for I have never been a 
teacher, in the sense in which I use the term. Yet I have 
run up against several in my day, and have always come 
away with a wholesome respect for them ; so that I am pre- 
pared to say : 

1 20 



SPRAGUE'S SPEECHES. 121 

"Of all professions that this world has known, 
From clowns and cobblers upwards to the throne; 
From the grave architect of Greece and Rome 
Down to the framer of a farthing broom — 
The worst for care and undeserved abuse, 
The first in real dignity and use 
(If skilled to teach and diligent to rule), 
Is the learned master of a little school." 

Whether or not the teacher is any wiser or better for our 
meeting, modesty forbids my inquiring. 

I realize fully the opportunity I here have for evening old 
scores with my early teachers, and I had at first thought of 
saying some things more or less cruel ; but, on reflection, I 
have concluded that, after all, mercy so sweetened justice in 
all of the performances in the line of school tragedy, in 
which I was a star actor, that any bitter feelings I might 
once have had are swallowed up in the happy memory of 
those days when I played jackstones with the girls at recess 
on the back porch of a certain house in my native town, 
which stands next door to a little frame building on whose 
ground floor old "father Love" cobbled our fathers' and 
grandfathers' soles, and on whose second floor a good 
woman, whose memory is sacred to scores of men and 
women now living, held her little school. How sweet was 
her punishment, when, as once, I was compelled to sit under 
her desk, and there to spend my time fishing from a crack 
in the drawer over my head candy hearts, on which were 
printed "For a good boy," "For a sweet child," which said 
hearts were intended to be distributed to characters of that 
sort on the following Friday, of which characters I very well 
knew myself not to be one. And so for obvious reasons I 



122 SPRAGUE'S SPEECHES, 

shall refer as tenderly as possible to the days of my school 
life, and, firmly intrenched behind the books of the law and 
the judges, content myself in the endeavor to teach teachers 
what, perchance, they already know as to their rights and 
obligations ; for it is not for a moment to be thought that 
there is a teacher so poorly qualified for the performance of 
his duties as not to know at least the general rules of law 
that should govern his action. 

The scope of this discussion shall not extend to criticisms 
or suggestions as to methods of teaching, or to statements 
of what I should do under this and that set of circumstances. 
No one, not even the law itself, with its far-reaching power, 
can fix in each case exactly the line of the teacher's duty or 
his liability. 

The law contents itself with laying down general princi- 
ples, and applying these to each set of circumstances pre- 
sented for its consideration. The law prescribes no method 
of punishment, nor does it set fixed bounds to punishment, 
so that the teacher and the pupil may know just when to 
begin or when to stop. 

You ask me, can I whip a boy for making faces at me 
when my back is turned? I cannot answer that question. 
No one but yourself can answer it. You know the circum- 
stances, the cause, the motive, the effect on the discipline of 
the school. You alone can answer it. Under certain cir- 
cumstances the law would give its approval, and under cer- 
tain other circumstances withhold it. 

The law will content itself with saying, if, looking at 
the circumstances as they existed, the punishment is reason- 
able, it is lawful; if not reasonable, it is not lawful; and it 



SPR AGUE'S SPEECHES. 123 

will wait, before passing its opinion for the hundred and one 
facts that go to make up the surrounding conditions before 
it answers the question. 

So that you must not expect me to say under what par- 
ticular circumstances you may legally whip or expel. But 
I will attempt to lay down general rules, allowing you to 
answer your own questions as to what to do under a given 
set of circumstances. 

I shall first consider the relation of teacher and pupil, and, 
in considering this, shall best arrive at a conclusion as to 
the rights and duties of the teacher. 

The law gives to parents the custody, control and ser- 
vices of their minor children. As to power of correction, 
very ancient laws gave the father the power of life and death 
over his children. The common law gives only a moderate 
degree of authority, relaxing as the child grows older. The 
father is liable to indictment for cruel punishment, if malic- 
ious and permanently injurious, and may be found guilty of 
manslaughter or murder. The presumption is that the pun- 
ishment given is just and deserved and properly adminis- 
tered, and courts refuse to interfere only when malice or 
evil purpose on the part of the parent is shown, or, as is 
coming more and more fully to be felt, where the common 
welfare of the State is shown to suffer. In the former case 
the parent is penaly or criminally responsible, and in the 
latter case the State will interfere to regulate the conduct of 
the parent or prescribe rules for the conduct of the child, it 
being upon the latter ground that compulsory education 
can be reasonably justified. 



124 SFHAGUE'S SPEECHES, 

The law, in allowing this broad discretion and authority 
to the parent, is wise, for the parental instinct, the affection 
of man for his offspring, stands as a wall against the attack 
of malice and cruelty; and when, as seldom, indeed, hap- 
pens, the angry passions of the parent leap the barrier, the 
consensus of outraged public feeling is only proof of the 
deep-seated public sense of what is just and right. 

The law further recognizes the right of the parent to dele- 
gate his authority, or at least a portion of it, to others. 

Parents, by placing their boy in school, tacitly, but none 
the less directly and positively, agree that for certain limited 
periods, their rights as parents are transferred to the 
teacher and the State ; and the latter, on the other hand, are 
bound to receive the trust, accept and fulfill the momentous 
and solemn duties of the position. 

Bound, I say ; and this responsibility cannot be shifted or 
declined. 

That boy or girl, whether white or black, rich or poor, 
bright or dull, Protestant or Catholic, who, providing he 
does not comport himself in a manner to injure the interests 
of the school, who knocks at your door, must be adopted 
into your family. 

Men have applied to the courts to keep the black boy 
from the white school ; but the courts dare not break the 
spirit and reason of the Constitution, although it has been 
said by learned courts that if separate schools for blacks and 
whites be established, with equal facilities and advantages, 
as good teachers, buildings, apparatus, course of study, etc., 
they might help a little in the way of keeping up the war of 
races. 



SPR AGUE'S SPEECHES. 125 

But even here the courts are treading on dangerous 
ground. 

Understand me ; no teacher is compelled to take an inde- 
cent youth, or a youth presenting himself in such a charac- 
ter or condition as would tend to demoralize the school. 

As stated, the teacher must accept duties dependent on 
his position. The child has a right to demand it of the 
teacher, and if refused, or if the right be abused or the duty 
neglected, the child has recourse to the law in obtaining 
adequate damages. 

The question has arisen, is the teacher in this case liable 
to the parent? I think not, although I can scarcely see the 
force of the reasoning, which is that the education being for 
the benefit of the child, he alone can claim the damages. 
The more equitable view, it would seem, would be that the 
parent, having given up the time and service of the child, 
to which by nature and law he is entitled, and having parted 
with his rights in consideration of the fulfillment, by "the 
teacher, of his duties, is alike damaged, and should have like 
recourse. 

The question now arises as to the nature of the power 
thus delegated. We have seen that the parent's right to 
punish extends to the limit where malice and wicked pur- 
pose begin ; and this by reason of the parental instinct and 
aflfection for the child. The earlier authorities, as well as 
some modern ones, make the authority of the teacher co-ex- 
tensive with that of the parent. But such decisions evi- 
dently go too far. Even as far back as Blackstone, we read 
that "the teacher has such portion of the power of the 



126 SPR AGUE'S SPEECHES. 

parent committed to his charge, viz., that of restraint and 
correction, as may be necessary to answer the purpose for 
which he was employed." Chitty says this power must be 
temperately exercised, and no schoolmaster should feel him- 
self at liberty to administer chastisement co-extensive with 
a parent, howsoever the infant might appear to have de- 
served it. Bishop says the authority of the teacher will 
seldom quite equal the parental right. The Court says, in 
Lander vs. Seaver, a Vermont case : The parent unques- 
tionably is answerable only for malice and wicked motives 
or an evil heart in punishing his child. This great, and to 
some extent irresponsible, power of control and correction 
is invested in the parent by nature and necessity. It springs 
from the relation of parent and child. It is felt rather as a 
duty than a power. This parental power is little liable to be 
abused, for it is continually restrained by natural affection, 
the tenderness which the parent feels for his offspring, an 
affection ever on the alert, and acting rather by instinct 
than by reason. 

The schoolmaster has no such natural restraint. Hence 
he may not be trusted with all a parent's authority, for he 
does not act from the instinct of parental affection. He 
should be guided and restrained by judgment and wise dis- 
cretion, and hence is responsible for their reasonable exer- 
cise. In an Iowa case the Court says : We do not think the 
teacher had such right or authority, and we can see no 
necessity for clothing him with such rights and arbitrary 
power. So, all the later authorities have fallen into the 
opinion that the relation is not identical, but analogous, and, 



SPR AGUE'S SPEECHES. 127 

being less confidential, that the authority of the teacher is 
only such as may be necessary to answer the purposes for 
which he is employed. So, it has been held that the teacher 
cannot compel the pupils to bring in stove wood at recess, 
unless as a means of punishment, under such circumstances, 
etc., as render this method of punishment reasonable, inas- 
much as it has nothing to do with the object of his employ- 
ment. 

We may say, then, that the authority of the teacher is 
quasi-parental, but not identical, in that the parental is 
bounded only by malice and evil purpose, while that of the 
teacher must in every case be limited by what is reasonable. 

"The reasonable judgment of reasonable men" is the cri- 
terion as to what is legal punishment. So beyond all else 
the teacher must be a reasonable person. He may be able 
to add six columns of figures in his sleep, or parse a sneeze ; 
but if he lack judgment, he may throw his books to the 
dogs. 

As I read the decisions of judges and see how the word 
"reasonable" is made to shoulder burdens, I wonder that it 
is not ranked as the first desirable quality in a teacher. Per- 
haps it is, but I imagine it is not so often sought after or in- 
quired into when we hire a teacher, as is his knowledge of 
how accurately he can spot the solution of some tricky prob- 
lem. I believe the trickiest problem teachers have to solve 
is that tow-headed boy, or freckle-faced girl, beside which 
all the hideous nightmares of mathematics and gramniar, 
sprung upon them by school examiners, are as dust in the 
balance. So, above all, the law requires of the teacher to be 



128 SFRAGUE'S SPEECHES. 

reasonable in his rules, and reasonable in enforcing obed- 
ience to them. Had I the privilege and means of so doing, 
I would write above the door post of every schoolhouse in 
the land in great letters, so none could fail to read — In all 
things be reasonable. 

The teacher's supervision and control of the pupil extends 
from the time the pupil leaves home to attend school till he 
returns home from school. [Here follows citation of au- 
thorities.] 

The teacher has a right to make a rule and enforce it by 
whipping, prohibiting the boys from swearing quarreling or 
fighting on their way home from school, and before parental 
authority over them has been resumed. 

It is also pretty well decided that except where compul- 
sory education is the rule, the teacher has no right to com- 
pel the pupil to study certain branches where the pupil was 
excused therefrom by his parent, and that if the teacher at- 
tempts to force the pupil so to do, and the pupil refuses, 
and the teacher inflicts punishment for the refusal, the 
teacher may be guilty of assault and battery. The fact that 
the school is a public one, in which studies are prescribed by 
statute, does not vary the general rule as to the right of the 
parent to direct the omission of a part of the prescribed 
studies, except, perhaps, where, as stated, compulsory edu- 
cation is the law of the State. 

There is a species of conflict in which the pupil is gener- 
ally a delighted spectator, and that is where the parent and 
teacher stands hors de combat. The parent in most cases 
has the boy on his side, and the teacher, be it said to his 



SPR AGUE'S SPEECHES. 129 

credit, generally has the law on his. The parent, unmindful 
or ignorant of the compact he has entered into in placing 
his boy under the teacher's care, seeks ofttimes to exercise 
the authority with which he has already parted, and in 
response to the complaints of the lad, takes it upon himself 
to chastize the teacher for too zealously, as he thinks, per- 
forming his part of the agreement. 

With the boy on one side and the parent on the other, the 
teacher is led a pretty waltz. 

It must have been a teacher who wrote 

"Just Heaven! who knows the unremitting care 
And deep solicitude that teachers share. 
If such their fate, by thy divine control, 
Oh, give them health and fortitude of soul, 
Souls that disdain the murderous tongues of fame, 
And strength to make the sturdiest of them tame; 
Grant this, ye powers! to dominies distrest 
Their sharp-tailed hickories will do the rest." 

The boy complains that he can't learn geography; and 
the father, whose vision is bounded by the township in 
which he lives, sees no use in it himself, and so informs the 
teacher, with the request that Johnnie may not be com- 
pelled to study it. What course shall the teacher take? 
Under the common law, and aside from state laws compell- 
ing school attendance, the reasonable requests of the parent 
should and must be complied with ; but the requests must 
be reasonable. That Johnnie be allowed to study aloud, or 
whittle during school hours, will not be such requests. In 
the case of the geography hater, the courts hold the request 



I30 SPR AGUE'S SPEECHES. 

of the parent reasonable, and that the teacher having' ex- 
pelled the boy for refusing to study it, the teacher is liable 
in an action for damages. 

It is the boy's duty, generally speaking, to return home 
after school. If he does not do so, but in violation of a 
school rule (and such a rule would be reasonable), loiters 
about the school house out of love for it or the teacher, or 
for any other unreasonable cause, and thereby encourages 
the habit in others, the teacher may rightly punish him after 
other methods have failed. 

The teacher has the right to expel only for a reasonable 
cause. The power of expulsion is generally lodged in the 
hands of the school directors or other committee in charge 
of the school, and the teacher generally has power only to 
suspend the pupil until the matter can be brought to the 
attention of such superior body. Some States, and among 
them Ohio, regulate this by statute, and for a wrongful ex- 
pulsion the teacher is liable to the child, and according to 
Ohio statutes, I believe, the teacher and local directors of 
the sub-district are hable to the parent for damages. There 
are cases for which the usual methods of punishment are in- 
adequate. In general, no doubt, the teacher should report 
a case of this kind to the proper board for its action — if no 
delay will necessarily result from that course prejudicial to 
the best interests of the school. But the conduct of the pupiJ 
may be such that his presence for a day or an hour may 
be disastrous to the discipline of the school or the morals 
of other pupils. In such case it seems absolutely neces- 
sary to the welfare of the school that the teacher should 



SPRAGUE'S SPEECHES. 131 

have the power to suspend the offender at once from the 
privilege of the school — and he must necessarily decide for 
himself whether the case requires the remedy. He should 
then promptly report his action to the board. It will be 
seldom that the teacher in charge of the school will be 
compelled to exercise this power, because usually, he can 
readily communicate with the district board and have direc- 
tion and orders. 

We conclude, therefore, that the teacher has, in a proper 
case, the inherent power to suspend a pupil from the priv- 
ileges of the school, unless he has been deprived of the 
power by legislation or the afhrmative action of the board. 
In some States by statute, I understand, the expulsion may 
not extend beyond the term, and the teacher's power ex- 
tends only to temporary expulsion or until such time as 
the proper board may act, but the teacher would doubtless 
be held liable for an unreasonable exercise of this power. 

It is settled in law that the teacher may make reasonable 
rules to require obedience, even to the extent of expulsion. 
The question arises, what are reasonable rules? [Here fol- 
low quotations from numerous decisions.] 

This brings us to that subject, dear to every teacher's 
heart, corporal punishment. 

School codes of the United States are generally silent 
on this question, but numerous judicial decisions uphold 
the teacher's right to use corporal punishment. There is 
no doubt but that the law gives the teacher the privilege 
of applying the rod. 

Under the old Roman law the father was privileged to 
kill or abandon his young child. 1900 years have taught 



132 SPR AGUE'S SPEECHES, 

us better than that, and we are now only allowed to wear 
out his pants, to the amusement of the school, the souring 
and spoiling of the teacher's day and temper, and the hard- 
ening of the boy's disposition, and the injury of some am- 
bitious young apple tree. We are perhaps a little more 
civilized than when Byron wrote, 

"Oh, ye who teach the ingenious youth of nations, 
Holland, France, England, Germany and Spain, 
I pray ye flog them upon all occasions; 
It mends their morals, never mind the pain." 

To my disappointment I have been unable to find a single 
court of last resort with backbone and humanity enough to 
decide against corporal punishment. One judge, a mem- 
ber of the Indiana Supreme Court (I can see the kind- 
hearted old gentleman, and he doubtless has a family of 
girls), is down in the Indiana reports as saying that "the 
weight of reason and humanity is against such a method 
of punishment, but that the public still clamor for this relic 
of barbarity in the common schools, and the courts must 
yield to the demand.'' Yes, we have all seen the clamor 
for it, but this clamor for it has been pretty well confined 
to one class. The boys and girls who make up the vast 
majority of this same public never seem to hurt themselves 
clamoring for it. But this method of punishment will go, 
just as sure as capital punishment, the guillotine and the 
stocks are passing into history. The forests of our land 
are far too rapidly disappearing, The young life has been 
strangled in many a sprightly young sapling to furnish 
humiliation and a warm seat for a restless boy, amusement 



SFRAGUE'S SPEECHES. 133 

for his comrades, and a tired body and heartache for the 
good teacher. When I glance at the premature old age 
of the appletrees in my father's yard, I ask myself if it paid 
to spoil those noble old trees, whose very knots and 
wrinkles I love, for what they had to sacrifice in order to 
my "bringing up." 

Yes, the teacher may continue to flog, and no law will 
save the lad excepting the law which in its spirit provides 
that the stick be of reasonable size — not too many knots 
in it; that it be not used with unreasonable force, nor for 
an unreasonable cause, and that the teacher shall exercise 
reasonable kindness in choosing as to where to make the 
application. Anything beyond this, and the teacher will 
finu that he who laughs last laughs best. 

The question is, always, whether, considering the of- 
fense of the child, his age, condition, and all the circum- 
stances, the teacher inflicted extreme and unnecessary pun- 
ishment. 

The right is to punish in a proper manner and to a proper 
degree. If the teacher goes beyond that, the act becomes 
unlawful, and he is responsible for the consequences. 

In determining this question the teacher must take into 
consideration the size and apparent condition of the child, 
the character of the instrument of punishment used, and 
the manner of its use, the part of the body to which it is 
applied, and the extent of the application. 

It must always be borne in mind that the welfare of the 
child is the main purpose for which pain is permitted to 
be inflicted. Any punishment, therefore, which may seri- 
ously endanger life, limb or health, or will disfigure the 



134 - SPR AGUE'S SPEECHES. 

child or cause any permanent injury, may be pronounced, 
in itself, immoderate, as not only being unnecessary for, 
but inconsistent with, the purpose for which it is author- 
ized. Punishment, however, which produces temporary 
pain only, and no permanent ill, cannot be so pronounced. 
When the correction is not in itself immoderate, its legality 
or illegality must depend entirely on the animus with which 
it is administered. Judge Cooley says the tendency of mod- 
ern authority is to restrict rather than enlarge the power 
of the teacher in this respect, and that the brutal and sav- 
age methods of punishment formerly tolerated are fast dis- 
appearing under the refining influence of modern civiliza- 
tion. 

Horace Mann says of corporal punishment : "It should 
be reserved for the baser faults. It is a coarse remedy 
and should be employed upon the coarser sins of our ani- 
mal nature and when employed at all it should be admin- 
istered in strong doses." 

No precise rule can be laid down as to when or to what 
extent corporal punishment should be inflicted. Each case 
must depend upon its own circumstances. We cannot too 
strongly condemn the custom prevalent in some schools, 
of threatening such punishment, and inflicting it for every 
trivial ofifense. Familiarity with the rod breeds contempt 
for it. The witnessing of even a few floggings per month 
tends to familiarize the school with the performance, and 
engenders the feeling that it is as necessary to a well con- 
ducted school as is calling the roll. The fear of the rod, 
the feeling of disgrace and humiliation attendant upon its 



SPR AGUE'S SPEECHES. 135 

use, is lost in the knowledge that it is not productive of 
serious consequences, and that other boys and girls have 
lived through it. If punishment of this sort be resorted 
to, let it not be made one of the school exercises. This 
stopping of the machinery of the school to give a boy a 
thrashing seems to me as much out of harmony with things 
as the action of the little boy who was on his knees in his 
little night dress saying his prayers. His little sister could 
not resist the temptation to tickle the soles of his feet. He 
stood it as long as he could, and then said : "Please, God, 
excuse me a minute, while I knock the stuffing out of Jen- 
nie." 

The less frequently a punishment is administered, the 
more healthful feeling will exist regarding its exercise, and 
the more wholesome fear of it will be found among the 
pupils. The teacher must take also into consideration the 
mental and moral qualities of the pupil, and, as indicative 
of these, his general behavior in school, and his attitude 
towards his teacher. The immediate ofifense alone should 
not determine the punishment, but the past offenses that 
aggravate the present one, and show the pupil to have 
been habitually refractory and disobedient. It is not neces- 
sary in punishing to remind the pupil of his past and accu- 
mulating offenses. The pupil knows them well enough, 
without having them brought freshly to his notice. It 
must be borne in mind that the master is not relieved from 
liability in damages for the punishment of a scholar that is 
clearly excessive and unnecessary, by the fact that he acted 
in good faith and without malice, honestly thinking that 



136 SPR AGUE'S SPEECHES. 

the punishment was necessary both for the discipline of 
the school and the welfare of the child. Whether, under 
the facts, the punishment was excessive, is a question for 
the jury. The facts must determine in every case, but in 
many cases the court has taken upon itself to instruct the 
jury, as in one case that any punishment with a rod which 
leaves marks or welts on the pupil for two months after- 
wards or much less time is clearly excessive and actionable. 
A teacher once wrote to a boy's parents proposing to beat 
the boy severely. The father gave his permission, and the 
teacher beat the boy for two and a half hours till he died. 
He was adjudged guilty of manslaughter though no malice 
was shown. The courts have also held that the pupil must 
know, or be in position to know, the cause of the punish- 
ment, or it will be actionable. 

Only that punishment reasonably suited to the offense 
and reasonably administered is allowable. As to what is 
reasonable, the teacher must decide. Hence, if possible, 
delay the punishment long enough to come to it with a rea- 
soning temper and discrimination. If reasonable punish- 
ment of the ordinary kind fails, brutal or cruel methods are 
not excusable. Suspension or expulsion may then be re- 
sorted to. 

As leading us to the conclusion that this method of pun- 
ishment is disappearing, we find a case stating that if the 
punishment be administered for the gratification of passion 
or of rage, or if it be immoderate in extent, or excessive in 
its nature, or if it be protracted beyond the child's power 



SPRAGUE'S SPEECHES. 137 

of endurance, or with an instrument unfitted for the pur- 
pose or calculated to produce danger to life or limb, the 
person inflicting it is liable to the law, and if death results 
is liable for manslaughter. 

It is held in a Tennessee case that a father may not so 
interfere in the workings of a school, as to require that a 
teacher should not whip his child; nor can a teacher dele- 
gate the privilege of using the rod. The law requires him 
to do his own whipping. The law is equally jealous of the 
lad's prerogative, and will not allow him to give away his 
privilege. What he gets is as difficult to get rid of as what 
the teacher has to give. 

Nor can a father authorize excessive punishment and the 
teacher escape responsibility thereby. The father never 
possessed that right, and cannot delegate it. The teacher 
can punish the youth who has attained his majority, if he 
voluntarily places himself in the position of pupil. The ad- 
visability of the teacher's exercising his power in such cases 
will, you will understand, depend greatly on the relative 
size of the pupil and himself. We can imagine circum- 
stances where corporal punishment would not meet with 
favor in the teacher's eyes. There are two cases in the 
books where pupils over age invoked the aid of the law, 
but in each case the law refused to lend a helping hand. 
The man thus placing himself under the authority of the 
teacher, forfeits the rights and privileges his by nature, by 
virtue of his reaching manhood's estate, and may be made 
to stand on one leg or sit with the girls as any ten-year-old. 

One of the cases referred to is that of a young lady 



138 SFRAGUE'S SPEECHES. 

who had reached a point in life somewhat beyond majority, 
and I was surprised, knowing the general truthfulness of 
the sex, that it crept out in evidence in the case, that the 
young lady had given her age as less than it actually was. 
It does not appear whether or not she had designs on the 
schoolmaster ; but the court evidently thought that a school- 
master should have thrown around him the strong arm of 
the law under such circumstances. 

But, speaking of being compelled to sit with the girls, I 
cannot refrain from expressing my condemnation of such 
a method of punishment. What is the result of it, teachers, 
on the boy whose ideas are just shaping into permanent 
form. Tommy is caught winking at little Mary, and who 
wouldn't? The teacher sees him. Nobody has winked at 
her for so long she can't understand or appreciate it. 
"Tommy, pick up your arithmetic and take that seat beside 
Mary's ! " 

Little Mary blushes. The school giggles. Tommy, as 
red as a lobster from shame, takes his seat. He never 
looks at little Mary — turns his back to her. A moment 
before he wanted to kiss her, had just thrown a note to her 
ofifering to share his apple with her at recess, if she would 
only love him just a little bit and not talk so much to 
Freddy Jones. A moment ago he would have thought it 
the choicest privilege to sit down by little Mary and help 
her get her lessons, or tell her some story of his youthful 
prowess, and now he blushes because he must sit beside 
her. He hates her at that moment, and yet, sweet little 
Mary, her eyes brim full of tears — he loves her very apron 



SPRAGUE'S SPEECHES. 139 

strings. What have you done? Crushed little buds of 
love and promise, made Tommy think it a disgrace to sit 
with a girl when he ought to consider it an honor, when he 
ought to count himself on holy ground. He thinks every 
bright little eye that twinkles at him, and every little curl 
that nods at him, and every little figure that passes him at 
his desk, is covering him with disgrace. Is that the way 
to bring up a boy to think his wife, his mother, his sister, 
is his equal, if not his superior? Is that the way to teach 
a boy to be a gentleman, and to respect and love some 
good woman? 

If I were subjected to such punishment, I imagine I 
would follow the example of the boy in the following : 

"Old Master Brown brought his ferule down, 
And his face looked angry and red. 

'Go, seat you there, now, Anthony Blair, 
Along with the girls,' he said. 

Then Anthony Blair, with a mortified air, 
With his head down on his breast, 

Took his penitent seat by the maiden sweet. 
That he loved of all the best. 

And Anthony Blair seemed whimpering there. 
But the rogue only made believe. 

For he peeped at the girls with the beautiful curls 
And ogled them over his sleeve." 

Boys are only too likely to set themselves up as just a 
little bit better than their sisters. 

Two little boys, aged 5 and 7, were members of a fam- 
ily, to which one day a young lady was added much to the 
disgust of her brothers, who saw their influence gradually 
slipping through their fingers. One day the little sister had 



I40 SFRAGUE'S SPEECHES. 

a violent fit of crying. The eldest brother said, "Say, don't 
she cry awfully?'' "Yes," said the younger, "But you can't 
blame her." "Why, what ails her?" With great disgust, 
"She's crying because she's a girl." 

A lady said to live in Ohio is the mother of six boys. 
One day a caller remarked in the presence of one of the 
boys, an eight-year-old, "What a pity that one of your 
boys had not been a girl !" The youth promptly interposed, 
"I'd like to know who'd a bin her. I wouldn't a bin 'er, 
Ed wouldn't a bin 'er, Joe wouldn't a bin 'er, Tom wouldn't 
a bin 'er, Jack wouldn't a bin 'er. Will wouldn't a bin 'er. 
I'd like to know who'd a bin 'er." 

An interesting case involving the power of the teacher to 
inflict corporal punishment is the case of Van Vactor 
against the State, an Indiana case. During February, 1887, 
Tyner Van Vactor was a teacher in Marshall county, Indi- 
ana. He was eighteen years of age. Edward Patrick, a 
boy of sixteen, was one of his pupils. One Friday after- 
noon, while school was in session, Van Vactor directed Pat- 
rick to bring in some wood and put it in the stove. Patrick 
obeyed, but while engaged about the stove and while Van 
Vactor's back was turned, he made some antic demonstra- 
tions which created a general laugh among the children. 
Van Vactor, as a punishment, required Patrick to stand up 
by the stove for some time. After school Patrick put on his 
overcoat preparatory to starting home, and, assuming to 
claim that by having to stand by the stove he had become 
very warm and liable to take cold, he put on Van Vactor's 



SFEAGUE'S SPEECHES. 141 

overcoat. Van Vactor soon discovered the loss of his coat, 
sent a messenger in hot haste who demanded its return, but 
did not get it. Van Vactor thereupon went home minus 
his overcoat. On Monday morning Van Vactor told Pat- 
rick he stood temporarily suspended. During the day Van 
Vactor saw the township trustee, who advised him that 
Patrick should be required either to take a whipping or 
leave the school, and in this view Van Vactor concurred. 
On that evening Van Vactor told Patrick what had been 
resolved upon. Patrick said he would not take the whip- 
ping, but on returning to school the next morning he told 
Van Vactor that he had consulted the family, and they 
had advised him to take the whipping, provided it be not 
inflicted upon him until after school and the others had left. 
Van Vactor assented. Accordingly, during the day Van 
Vactor provided himself with a green switch about three 
feet in length and forked near the middle, forming two lim- 
ber prongs. After school had closed and some moments 
of apparent suspense had intervened, Patrick remarked that 
it was time for the performance to begin, and assisted in re- 
moving a table and in clearing the floor. He then placed 
himself before, and with his face toward the blackboard, 
and indicated he was ready. Van Vactor thereupon struck 
Patrick nine sharp blows on the back part of his legs, be- 
tween his suspender buttons and his knee joints. Patrick 
made no outcry, and the switch was not broken. Two or 
three days afterwards Van Vactor was arrested, charged 
with assault and battery. A justice of the peace tried and 
convicted him, a circuit court jury on appeal found him 



142 SPR AGUE'S SPEECHES. 

guilty and fined him one cent (in consideration, we suppose, 
of his salary). The case went to the Supreme Court, and 
the judgment was reversed. The Court took into consider- 
ation all the circumstances as related, with the additional 
circumstance that Patrick had returned to school the morn- 
ing following the day of the punishment with his skates, 
that Van Vactor had testified he had been sorry to have 
had to whip Patrick, that he had no malice, etc., and so 
held that the offense merited punishment, and that the 
punishment was reasonable, and the teacher exonerated, 
saying that a teacher may exact compliance with all reason- 
able rules, and may, in a kind and reasonable spirit, inflict 
corporal punishment for disobedience. 

To support a charge of assault and battery it is necessary 
to show that the act was intended, but in the case of the 
punishment of a pupil the intent may be inferred from the 
unreasonableness of the method adopted or the excess of 
the force employed, but the burden of proving such unrea- 
sonableness or such excess is on the State. 

In such a case, in addition to the general presumption 
of his innocence, to which everyone charged with a crime is 
entitled, the teacher is presumed to have done his duty. 

[Here follow references to other cases.] 

As I have said, the benefit of the doubt always rests with 
the teacher. To the boy is left the benefit of the punish- 
ment, thus, of course, creating what may seem an unfair 
advantage in the former, but to the glory of the profes- 
sion, let me repeat, in the first one hundred years of our 
nation's history only four cases have reached the higher 



SPRAGUE'S SPEECHES. 143 

courts where the teacher has been charged with this exces- 
sive exercise of his authority, and in but two of these was 
the charge upheld by the court, in the other two, the courts 
holding the teacher justified in his conduct. This is say- 
ing a great deal, seeing what excellent material our fathers 
must have made for early schoolmasters to practice upon. 

No doubt this benefit of the doubt law should be changed, 
but it never will be, for the boys who want and need the 
change, cease to care for it about the time they grow old 
enough to be able to take a hand in changing it; so that 
each successive generation of little urchins must put up 
with the benefit of nothing unless it be the benefit of the 
"licking." 

Some of us, however, who are yet on the hither side of 
middle age, may like to see the day when the schoolboy 
may not have to wear double breasted trousers, for, with 
all things terrestrial, the law is subject to changes and im- 
provement, and as indicative of this, I see a court has just 
held that a man is not liable for a bill for shampooing his 
wife's head, on the ground that it was not a necessity. 

But the conscience of the race is surely growing more 
tender. We are civilizing our methods of punishment. 
Love, an hitherto almost unknown factor, is asserting its 
power. 

"The twig is so easily bended, 

I have banished the rule and the rod; 
I have taught them the goodness of knowledge. 

They have taught me the goodness of God. 



144 SPRAGUE'S SPEECHES. 

"My heart is a dungeon of darkness, 
Where I shut them for breaking a rule, 

My frown is sufficient correction, 
My love is the law of the school. 

"They are idols of hearts and of households. 

They are angels of God in disguise, 
His sunlight still sleeps in their tresses, 

His glory still shines in their eyes. 

"These truants from home and from Heaven, 

Have made me more manly and mild, 
I know now how Jesus could liken 
The kingdom of God to a child." 

And now I will wager, teacher, that you are thinking 
of a certain barefooted, dirty-faced boy who gives you so 
many hours of pain, and you are saying, "Well, I will at 
least keep the stick for him." 

"Then think of the paths steep and stony. 
Where the feet of the dear ones must go; 
Of the mountains of sin hanging o'er them. 
Of the tempests of fate blowing wild. 
Oh, there is nothing on earth half so holy 
As the innocent heart of a child." 

What a beautiful picture is that of the kind-hearted 
schoolmaster, given by Malcolm Douglass : 

A funny old professor kept a school for little boys, 

And he'd romp with them in playtime, and he wouldn't mind their 

noise; 
While in his little schoolroom, with its head against the wall. 
Was a bed of such proportions it was big enough for all. 



SFRAGUE'S SPEECHES. 145 

"It's for tired little pupils," he explained; "for you will find 
How very wrong, indeed, it is to force a budding mind; 
Whenever one grows sleepy and he can't hold up his head, 
I make him lay his primer down and send him of? to bed 

"And sometimes it will happen on a warm and pleasant day. 
When the little birds upon the trees go toorallooral lay. 
When wide-awake and studious it's difficult to keep, 
One by one they'll get a-nodding till the whole class is asleep! 

"Then, before they're all in dreamland and their funny snores begin, 
I close the shutters softly so the sunlight can't come in; 
After which I put the schoolbooks in their order on the shelf, 
And, with nothing else to do, I take a little nap myself!" 

As we grow older we live more and more in the past 
I recall that once in the attic of my father's house I hap- 
pened upon a pair of knee breeches, soiled and worn. The 
instinct of a boy still lingering in my grown up nature, I 
at once went down into the pockets and there I found an 
old knife, a broken fish hook, a piece of string and a slate 
pencil. Do you know what I did? I sat down on an old 
trunk and turned those little worthless trinkets over and 
over, and as I did so, I saw the old school room and the 
boys and girls, the little slate drawn all over with pictures 
of battles of the Franco-Prussian war, with visible bullets 
flying through the air, the old falls back of the grove where 
I went fishing for minnows, and the kites we flew upon 
the commons. How long I sat there, what unmanly feel- 
ings I had is only known to myself and even now as 
I return from time to time to the scenes of my youth there 
is nothing I delight so much in doing as in seeking out the 
spots sacred to me because of their connection with my 
boyish life. 



146 SPRAGUE'S SPEECHES. 

Teachers, you who have grown to older age, do you not 
deHght in going down into the pockets of the past and do 
you care if some of the little trinkets you draw forth are 
not so bright and clean as they might be? Is that bad 
boy any the less dear to you, now? 

What a troop of bright memories must follow in the wake 
of the gray-haired teacher, and what would you who are 
not teachers give to be able to say : 

When the lessons and tasks are all ended, 

And the school for the day is dismissed, 
The little ones gather around me 

To bid me good-night and be kissed. 
O, the little white arms that encircle 

My neck in their tender embrace! 
O, the smiles that are halos of heaven, 

Shedding sunshine of love on my face, 

I shall leave the old house in the autumn. 

To traverse its threshold no more; 
Ah! how I shall sigh for the dear ones 

That meet me each morn at the door; 
I shall miss the "good-nights" and the kisses, 

And the gush of their innocent glee, 
The groups on the green, and the flowers 

That are brought every morning to me. 

I shall miss them at morn and at even. 

Their song in the school and the street, 
I shall miss the low hum of their voices 

And the tread of their delicate feet. 
When the lessons of life are all ended. 

And Death says, "The school is dismissed!" 
May the little ones gather around me, 

To bid me good-night and be kissed! 



THE SIGNS OF THE TIMES. 

DELIVERED AT THE PARK HOTEL, NEW YORK CITY, 

AT A BANQUET OF THE NE W YORK COMMERCIAL 

LA W LEAGUE, IN i8g6. 

I am to talk to the sentiment, the signs of the times ; I 
will do so briefly. 

I am not a soothsayer nor a reader of auguries, nor am 
I much of a dreamer; I am entirely too busy with the 
present to get often into the mood of the prophet; I have 
not lived long enough to be much of a philosopher; 'life 
has always been too much of a struggle with me to make 
me a speculator; but I am not so blind to the significance 
of passing events as not to see in them some indications 
pregnant with future possibilities. To particularize: 

This banquet board is a sign of the times. Did you in 
your wildest imaginings dream of such an incident as this, 
five years — three years — one year ago? I made a visit to 
this city in 1890, I think it was. I met Mr. Whitehead, 
Mr. Niles, Mr. Remington, Mr. Walker, and a half a hun- 
dred others engaged in the business of commercial law, col- 
lections and reports. I spent a delightful Sunday afternoon 
in the hospitable home of Mr. Remington, I lunched with 
Mr. Walker, I mingled with these men, I studied them, I 
tried to learn the conditions of the business, and I went 
home thoroughly satisfied that every man in the business 
in New York was a good fellow but was supremely selfish, 

147 



148 SPR AGUE'S SPEECHES. 

in so far as his treatment of his fellows was concerned; 
and further that nothing was too good for an "outsider" 
from Detroit or from any other country hamlet. Honor- 
able men engaged in honorable work whose interests were 
along identical lines, were not only not acquainted with 
one another, but were indifferent, suspicious, and too often 
bitterly hostile to one another. 

I went to Chicago and found much the same condition 
of things, and I concluded, either that the business had 
something inherently wrong in it or that the wrong per- 
sons were engaged in it. 

"Time works many miracles," and among these miracles 
is an association of these very men, with their legs under 
the same mahogany, and much of the old-time indifference 
wiped away ; and despite this event, I imagine that to-mor- 
row your business will go on just as smoothly and just as 
profitably as of yore. 

I had to give a little advice once to an impatient, over- 
worked, underpaid country lawyer; I told him that I 
thought the commercial lawyer would some day come out 
of the wilderness of poor methods, poor fees, poor results; 
he wrote me in reply that he would be satisfied if he, like 
Moses, could just live long enough to get a peep into the 
promised land. Well, I may be an enthusiast but I believe 
the Commercial Law League of America will be the Joshua 
of the host that will live to see a better country — not per- 
haps flowing with milk and honey, but at least not a desert 
of barren rock and blistering sands. 

Again : The last five years have developed much thought 



SFRAGUE'S SPEECHES. 149 

and discussion as to office management. To the lawyer of 
fifty years ago, this would sound supremely unprofessional. 
To him the model law office was an omnum gatherum — 
an untidy, disarranged mass of papers, books, ink spots, 
cuspidors, cobwebs and cockroaches. His tickler, was his 
tardy conscience; his letter press, too often the well worn 
seat of his under — standing or rather — sitting; his docket, 
a last year's almanac ; his office boy, an unkempt lout of a 
youth; his file case, his hat and his capacious pocket; his 
greatest accomplishment, his windy declamation before a 
jury. Professional ethics absolutely denied him the privi- 
lege of being business-like ; so the public came to consider 
it professional to do business behind dirty windows, on 
dirty floors, and with dirty books. You will find all law 
offices so pictured in novels — Dickens and all other novel- 
ists bear witness ! 

The telegraph, the telephone, the typewriter, the rail- 
road, the steamboat, the electric car, have produced a dif- 
ferent sort of a man, who now asks of the public its pat- 
ronage. The modern business lawyer and (another devel- 
opment of the times) the business manager of collections 
and credits in agencies and mercantile houses, are signs 
of the coming also of a new code of professional ethics. 

The modern business lawyer and the collection and credit 
manager must be clean, systematic, thorough, quick, able. 
He must have telegraph and telephone at his very desk. 
He must live with his traveling equipment ready at hand. 
He must employ one, two, three, a dozen, quick, trained 
helpers to help him do his work. He is at his office early 



I50 SPR AGUE'S SPEECHES. 

and late. He eats his lunch as a gun is loaded, ramming in, 
first the powder, then the wad — and he is in luck if the 
gun goes off without bursting. 

Modern commerce and modern business life have cre- 
ated the novi homines, and with their advent the days for 
which the old lawyer sighs (as fast he loses his grip) are 
no more. 

With the necessity of doing business fast, comes the 
necessity of system ; with system comes expense ; with mod- 
ern energy comes modern competition; with modern com- 
petition comes a cheapening of labor, more expensive ap- 
pliances and methods, less pay — result, only the most 
capable men are to make the money. The time has gone 
by when a novice can enter the commercial law field and 
succeed. 

Let me congratulate the New York Commercial Law 
League : first, on the very evident fact of its existence ; and 
second, on its ability thus early developed to take substan- 
tial food. I am the proud father of two infants whose 
stomachs are being experimented upon with indifferent suc- 
cess and I can appreciate the spectacle of a two-months 
old youngster taking food naturally and without coughing 
up its little lungs in an effort to be happy. 

Let me also congratulate the New York Commercial 
Law League again on its good judgment in so timing its 
dinner as to meet the gastronomic requirements of the 
National Executive Committee now meeting in this city. 
You probably appreciate the housewife's secret that the 
nearest way to a man's heart is through his stomach and 



SPR AGUE'S SPEECHES. 151 

have promptly taken that route to the affections of the 
very august gentlemen who hold in their hands so largely 
the iate of the National League. Not being on that com- 
mittee myself, I have come to take part in this affair in 
order to see that, in winning its heart, you do not at the 
same time steal away its judgment, and that lulled to sleep 
by your soft caresses it may not fall to sleep in the lap of 
its DeHlah and be shorn of its strength. 

I shall take no more of your time, but thanking you for 
your courtesy to myself and my co-laborers I bid you 
good-night. 



THE STEPS THAT LED UP TO MAGNA 
CHARTA. 

DELIVERED BEFORE THE CHICAGO LA W STUDENTS' 

ASSOCIATION IN THE LECTURE ROOM OF THE 

KENT COLLEGE OF LA W IN j8gj. 

Government by the consent of the governed, — the under- 
lying principle of good government the world over, writ- 
ten in no uncertain terms in Magna Charta, — was but the 
blood bought reassertion on English soil of what had been 
in the breasts of men of every race in all time — God given 
and eternal. 

Magna Charta is both a closing point and a starting point. 
English History before it is a prophesy of it ; English His- 
tory after it is a growth from it. It is the finished cap- 
piece of the first twelve hundred years of the christian era ; 
it is the chief corner-stone of the last seven hundred. The 
early centuries looked timidly forward to it; the later 
pointed bravely back to it. 

In tracing the steps that led up to Magna Charta, we 
must take a view of early English History. 

What troubles us at the outset is where to make our 
beginning. English History, says one, begins with the 
Celt and the Druid; says another, with the Roman Con- 
quest; another, with the Teutonic Invasion; another, with 
Alfred the Grert. Our starting point must be to a certain 
extent arbitrarily chosen, for like the sources of a mighty 

152 



SPR AGUE'S SPEECHES. 153 

river, who can say, standing at the point where the Father 
of Waters pours its mighty flood into the Gulf, here is a 
drop of water from the snow covered fields and mountains, 
here is one from a spring among the Wisconsin Hills, here 
is one from the gorges of the Rocky Mountains, and here 
one from the peaceful farm-lands of western New York. 
I must confess that amid the conflict of opinion as to the 
various sources of our laws and our institutions I stand 
bewildered. Of this I am convinced, that however much 
we owe to our Teutonic ancestors of the little district of 
Angeln in the promontory that juts out from north Ger- 
many and divides the North Sea from the Baltic, to them 
belongs not all the debt; for I shall find something of the 
beginnings among an older people than the Teutons, 
namely, the Celts. 

While much in the growth of a people is but the work- 
ing out of ideas, and intuitions, you may say, planted in 
the breast of man by his maker, something of that growth 
is due to physical environment. As a stream is shallow or 
deep, narrow and swift or broad and sluggish, clean and 
beautiful or muddy and repulsive, straight or tortuous in 
its windings, according to the topography of the country 
through which it passes and the character of its soil, so 
must the life of a people be earnest or frivolous, liberty- 
loving or indififerent, progressive or slothful, quick, intel- 
ligent and enterprising or heavy, ignorant and slothful, ac- 
cording to the physical conditions of climate, soil and sit- 
uation. 

As steps that led up to Magna Charta we have no right 
to overlook the steps the Almighty himself took for the 



154 SPRAGUE'S SPEECHES, 

Englishman in building for him a home fitted to become 
the home of a liberty loving, intelligent, aggressive, pros- 
perous people! Witness, its mountainous western coast 
and its rich lowlands to the east, its back turned to the 
ocean, its face to Europe; cut off from a further western 
march the rolling waves of invasion break upon its moun- 
tain barriers and perforce must settle, and what is more 
must fight, — must settle because further advance is physic- 
ally impossible, — must fight because the pressing tide of 
newcomers must push them into the ocean or itself retire. 
In time this condition produced a "home feeHng" which 
grew into pride of ancestry, of home, of country, without 
which no people can hope to become a nation, in the true 
sense of the term. With its face toward Europe, isolated 
from Europe and yet a part of it, with perfect natural boun- 
daries to curb ambition and to check the greed of others, 
with rocky coasts in the main as natural defenses, the home 
of the Englishman becomes, by the very argument of neces- 
sity, a compact whole, with the strong arm of nature as 
her defender. Compelled thus, even if indeed the spirit 
of her people, inherited from the first comers did not com- 
pel her, England became the great sea going, commercial 
nation, mistress of the sea and ruler of one-fourth of the 
inhabitable globe. Her climate (in a latitude the same as 
that of Labrador, yet by reason of the Gulf stream as tem- 
perate as our Gulf states) enabled her to produce a race of 
people at once hardy, industrious, independent, at the same 
time lovers of art and of learning. Her mountains have 
been the unconquerable fastnesses within which the con- 
servative energies of the past have lived to temper the 



SPRAGUE'S SPEECHES. 155 

rashness of zeal. Within these rocky fortresses the tradi- 
tions of former years, the unconquered spirit of the early 
Celt have lived on, — a silent but powerful force in all time 
against oppressive as well as inane government. Former 
kings lived in terror of these mountain peoples whose fre- 
quent incursions brought the English crown to its senses 
on many an occasion ; while in later years the sturdy com- 
mon sense of the men of these districts has proved the bal- 
ance-wheel to the government. 

Had England been an unbroken plain, her history would 
have been far diflferent. Had she been a part of the Con- 
tinent, Philip of Spain would not have lost his invincible 
fleet upon her rock-bound coasts and the majestic name of 
Napoleon might have shone forth in the annals of Eng- 
land's Kings ; had her climate been what her latitude would 
naturally give her, her commercial and political history 
had been far different. 

In the making of Magna Charta let us therefore not for- 
get that the hand of God, in the mysterious ways in which 
He has worked through all ages, prepared for Englishmen 
a heritage worth their pains to win and to hold. 

The history of England up to Magna Charta I divide 
into four periods : First, the Celtic — from the dawn of his- 
tory to the Roman Conquest, 55 B. C. Second, the Roman 
— from 55 B. C. to the Anglo Saxon in 437. Third, the 
Anglo Saxon — from the invasion to the Norman in 1066. 
Fourth, the Norman — from the Norman invasion to the 
Charter 121 5. 

[The speaker here quickly traces the early centuries of 
English History. This part we omit.] 



156 SPR AGUE'S SPEECHES. 

From steps more remote we now come to such as are 
nearer — to some whose sound is in no ways uncertain. 
Now we can hear the steady tramp of progress ; and our 
heart quickens, as history begins to unfold itself and man 
begins to rise in his real dignity and assert his rights — 
not as a class — not as Lords — but as man. It now begins 
to look as if manhood alter all is to stand for something 
in England and that there are some things the property of 
man as man that even a King of England must respect. 
Streaks of grey fall across the sky in the early morning 
of the thirteenth century that to our eager expectant gaze 
betoken the break of a new day; sounds come up from city, 
hamlet and country places, from castle and cloister, from 
the wretched abode of the ignorant rabble and the halls of 
the University, from highland and lowland, from men bur- 
dened, distracted, crushed, — sounds that are ominously 
near and heavy with meaning. 

The first of these nearer signs I will name is the growing 
distrust, amounting to hatred, of foreign influences in the 
"high places" of England. From 1066, when William the 
Conqueror landed in England, to the time of John, about 
1200 (a period of about 140 years), England had been 
under the rule of alien kings. These kings gave themselves 
generally to a more or less wise government, the great 
mass of the common people remaining aloof from the Nor- 
man nobles who came into possession of the castles and 
places of honor and dignity. By the time of the accession 
of Henry II, the Norman and the foreign elements had 



SPR AGUE'S SPEECHES. 157 

been fairly well assimilated, and England had become thor- 
oughly English. Norman speech, Norman customs, Nor- 
man manners, were swallowed up, and out of the one hun- 
dred years of Norman rule had sprung up a new England, 
an England strong in her attachment for purely English 
customs and traditions. 

Treasure and blood had been poured out in continuous 
efiforts to hold the French possessions of the Norman 
Kings, but not till the accession of the Angevin Kings, 
Henry II., Richard, and John, did the people wake to 
the realization that England was but a treasure house 
from which gold could be drawn for wars across the chan- 
nel. A rude awakening it was, too, when, after generations 
had spent their best efforts at the bidding of foreign-born 
Kings in holding these French provinces, King John lost 
Normandy and came home stripped of every foot of French 
soil. Was it for this that Englishmen had fought — for 
this they had suffered loss of estate and honor? 

But out of it, as indeed often out of the darkest seeming 
misfortunes come the best of blessings, came a glorious 
day for England. England's King must henceforth live 
at home, must know his subjects, must hear their cries, 
must touch their lives, must see their condition. No more 
residing abroad, no more flying visits to England to whip 
into submission recalcitrant nobles, no more foreign nobles 
quartered in every manor ; from henceforth England's King 
must take a responsibility unknown to him before. 

A common English feeling, a common hatred of foreign 



i5g SPIIAGUE'S SPEECHES. 

rule and influence, brought an immense outburst of ma- 
terial and intellectual activity. John found himself face to 
face with this new English people — a nation quickened with 
a new life and throbbing with a new energy. 

Again : A new fervor of study sprang up in the west from 
its contact throughout the Crusades with the more cul- 
tured east. Travelers brought back the rudiments of sci- 
ence from the schools of Cordova and Bagdad. The study 
of the Roman law was revived. Wandering teachers spread 
the new learning. The same spirit of restlessness, of in- 
quiry, of impatience at the traditions that drove half of 
Christendom to the tomb of our Lord, drove thousands 
to centers where teachers could be found. Oxford in the 
beginning of the 13th century took rank with the greatest 
schools of the eastern world. The feudal and ecclesiastical 
order of the old mediaeval world were both alike threat- 
ened by the power that had so strangely sprung up in their 
midst. Unlike feudalism, the University was a protest 
against the isolation of man from man. Wealth, physical 
strength, pride of ancestry, the very grounds on which feu- 
dal society rested, went for nothing in the lecture room. 
The University was a state absolutely self governed, whose 
citizens were admitted by a purely intellectual franchise; 
all had an equal right to counsel in this free commonwealth, 
and all had an equal vote; their voices named every officer, 
proposed and sanctioned every statute ; even the chancellor 
became an elected officer of their own. This democratic 
institution threatened feudalism. 



SPR AGUE'S SPEECHES. 159 

Again : The English town in early days was only a more 
thickly populated part of the country and governed the 
same as were the townships around it. The obligations 
of the inhabitants were the same : to keep fence and trench 
in good repairs, to send a contingent to the wars, and to 
the reeve, and four men to the hundred and the shire court. 
The landless man who dwelt within it had no share in the 
corporate life; the rule of the borough lay in the hands of 
its own freemen gathered in "borough-moot." But with 
the Danish wars came a change : Each man came to have 
a "lord," and the borough came into the hands of great 
thegns ; a new officer, the King's reeve was appointed, who 
collected the lord's dues, and justice and government lay 
wholly in the lord's hands, he recovering the fines and for- 
feitures, the fees and tolls of the markets and fairs. But 
when once these were paid and the services rendered, the 
English townsman was practically free. 

But here comes a change in the constitution of the town's 
social condition in the way of Merchant Guilds, which 
form another long step to Magna Charta. These Guilds 
grew out of those principles of mutual aid and mutual re- 
straint that lay at the basis of our old institutions. There 
was the oath of mutual fidelity; the monthly feast that 
bound together the new artificial family, which was to give 
rise to a mutual responsibility unknown before. "Let all 
share the same lot," ran its laws ; "if any misdo, let all bear 
it." On the other hand the wrongdoer was responsible to 
his fellows, as they were to the state, for order and obedi- 
ence to the laws. By a gradual coalescing of these Guilds, 



i6o SFE AGUE'S SPEECHES. 

powerful influences obtained a place in every considerable 
town and city. This inevitably brought about great 
changes in municipal institutions. The body of citizens in 
towns is soon found to be legislating in matters of internal 
trade. At a later stage we find the citizens petitioning the 
King for special privileges as, rights of coinage, fairs, ex- 
emptions from tolls, etc. 

Thus is going on a peaceful revolution, services disap- 
pearing, privileges and immunities growing. In the silent 
growth of the English people the boroughs thus lead the 
way ; across ages of oppression they bring the right of self- 
government, the right of free speech in free meetings, the 
right to equal justice at the hands of one's equals. 

The Charter that Henry granted to London became a 
model for lesser boroughs : The King yielded to its citizens 
the right of justice; each townsman could claim to be tried 
by his fellow-townsman in the town court. 

At the time of the Great Charter the larger towns had 
secured the privilege of self-government, the admmistra- 
tion of justice, and the control of their own trade, and were 
beginning to acquire the right of electing their own magis- 
trates: But the mass of the citizens, the serfs, the land- 
less poor, the artisans, had no part in the actual life of the 
town. The distance between the landed burghers who had 
a monopoly of trade with wealth and the artisan class tended 
to widen. There arose a distinction between the higher 
and lower classes of trades bringing about the Merchant 
Guild as the name of the former, and the Craft-Guild as 
that of the latter. As time went on, however, the Craft- 
Guild in numbers and influence obtained the superior place 



SPR AGUE'S SPEECHES. i6i 

and influence and this struggle of the few "greater folk" 
against the mass of the inhabitants marks the great civic 
revolutions of the 13th and 14th centuries. It was in this 
strife (secret for the greater part) between the Craft-Guild 
and the upper or aristocratic Merchant-Guild that the com- 
mon people learned to wage a war against oppression that 
made them a potent factor in the "baron's war" that 
wrested Magna Charta from King John. 

Another step was the growing tendency to commute 
labor-service, which grew out of the feudal system, for 
money payments. 

The population was increasing, the law of gavel-kind 
divided the inheritance of the tenantry equally among the 
sons so that the holding of each tenant and the services 
due from it became divided in a corresponding degree ; a 
labor rent became difficult for this reason to enforce, while 
the increase of wealth among the tenantry and the rise of a 
spirit of independence made it more burdensome to those 
who rendered it. This process was hastened by the neces- 
sities of the lords themselves. In it even the kings took 
part. Kings and nobles, driven by the luxury of the 
castle hall, the cost of foreign campaigns, the splendor of 
chivalry, offered manumission for money. Thus by many 
roads were Englishmen coming to the point of liberty; 
thus were the people growing into national unity and na- 
tional vigor. 

The loss of Normandy, as we have said, was a sudden 
blow to EngHsh pride. It brought home King John; he 
had yet to get acquainted with his people ; his predecessor, 



1 62 SPRAGUE'S SPEECHES. 

Richard, had visited them but twice and but for a few 
months; Henry II. had been absent for years. Little did 
John know the temper of the new England, as he stepped 
upon English soil disgraced by his defeat. 

The story of the reign of this miserable sovereign is soon 
told and in that story we may find some of the more potent 
causes of Magna Charta. John himself was his own worst 
enemy. "Foul as it is, hell itself is defiled by the fouler 
presence of John." Thus spake his contemporaries. 

Quick, clever, social, industrious, fond of men of learn- 
ing, yet in his heart lay insolence, selfishness, unbridled lust, 
cruelty, tyranny, superstition and cynical indifference to 
honor and truth. "Whom the Gods would destroy they 
first make mad." A traitor to his father, a traitor to his 
brother, a traitor to his wife, a traitor to his people, a traitor 
to his God ! And yet (strange mingling) vigorous " and 
able! 

He returned from France, on the loss of Normandy and 
with tremendous energy set about the repair of his for- 
tunes: In the summer of 1205 a new army is ready; but 
not yet can He start; two men, one a representative of the 
church class, another of the baron class, protest. Why? 
A son of Henry II., before whom Church and Baron had 
fallen in abject submission, live to witness a spirit of inso- 
lent freedom rising round him? Not so; he braces himself 
against it. Death stops the opposition of the Primate, and 
John, quick of purpose, sees to it that his tool, John de 
Grey, is enthroned as Primate, but not without opposition, 
for, at an informal meeting of the convent previously called, 



SPRAGUE'S SPEECHES. 163 

another, in the person of Reginald, is chosen. The rival 
claimants to the Primacy appeal to Rome. The Pope 
quashes both elections and orders the monks in his pres- 
ence to choose Stephen Langton. Here was usurpation 
of the rights of king and church. The King protests ; he 
does more, he threatens. The Pope threatens an interdict; 
John threatens the banishment of the clergy and the mutila- 
tion of every Italian found on English soil. The priests 
refuse the King's tax demands ; John banishes their Arch- 
bishop and extorts the money. The Pope thunders out his 
interdict ; Church bells are silent and the dead lay unburied. 
The Church, the main prop of royalty against the people, is 
driven to open opposition. John cares not for all these. 
He confiscates the church lands. The Pope excommuni- 
cates the King. Churchmen who in obedience thereto shun 
the King, are murdered or banished. The King stands 
alone, the nobles and the Church against him. He prom- 
ises, on his election, to satisfy the demands of the nobles 
and right their wrongs. This promise he breaks. He 
seizes their castles and carries away their children as host- 
ages. War brings taxation and the loss of Normandy 
deepens the wound. In 1212 the Pope issues a bull of 
deposition and proclaims John an enemy of Christendom. 
Surrounding nations fly to arms and the barons of England 
to a man enter into secret conspiracies. At war with Rome, 
with France, with Scotland, with Ireland, with Wales, — 
at war with the Church ! 

With characteristic suddenness he gives way. By remis- 
sion of fines he tries to win the people ; he negotiates with 



1 64 SFRAGUE'S SPEECHES. 

the people; receives Langton; promises to restore 'money 
extorted from the Church; and on the 15th of May, 1213, 
to crown his shame, he kneels before the Papal legate, sur- 
renders his kingdom to the Holy See, and takes it back 
again as a tributary vassal. The whole country murmurs. 
The Barons still hold aloof. John calls upon them to fol- 
low him over the sea for an attack on Phihp — and they re- 
fuse. Furious, John marches against them. A new antag- 
onist appears in the person of the Justiciar, Geoffry Fitz- 
Peter. 

At a gathering of a Council at St. Albans in August, 
1213, for the purpose of assessing the damages to the 
Church, Geoffry promises in the King's name good govern- 
ment, forbids extortion, pledges the King's peace to all 
and the observance of the laws of Henry I, The Pledges 
of Henry L had long been forgotten when the Justiciar 
brought them to light. 

Stephen Langton, from the first a champion of English 
freedom, sees the vast importance of the precedent. At 
the close of August he produces Henry's charter in a gath- 
ering of Barons at St. Paul's and it is. at once welcomed 
as a basis for the needed reform. Then he hastens to the 
King and gets his promise not to enter into strife with 
the baronage but to bring the dispute to legal judgment. 
In October the King returns to London, where his Jus- 
ticiar lays before him the claims of the Councils of St. Albans 
and St. Paul's. At this juncture the Justiciar dies and 
John cries out, "Now, by God's feet, I am for the first time 



SPR AGUE'S SPEECHES. 165 

King and Lord of England." But let us see: Langton 
comes forward and demands the King's assent to the Char- 
ter of Henry I.; the reading of that Charter has awakened 
a tremendous enthusiasm among the baronage. No more 
do we hear of secret scheming; now there is open, united, 
definite claims of national freedom and national law. John 
delays ; he must win back his French possession ; he crosses 
to the continent, wins battle after battle, only to return 
later to his Island home, defeated and humiliated. Now is 
the people's chance. "Refuse to restore our liberties 'and 
we swear to make war on you till they are restored," 
Further delay ensues, till finally the memorable year of 
1215 is ushered in to the accompaniment of armed men 
marching to a common center to lay their demands before 
the King. John is caught by surprise ; he asks for a truce ; 
he hesitates ; he dodges ; he offers freedom to the Church ; 
he offers to head a crusade. "Why do they ask for my 
kingdom? I will never grant such liberties to make me a 
slave!" He refuses and the country rises as one man. 
London, Exeter, Lincoln, throw open their gates to the 
barons. Promises of aid come from Scotland and Wales. 
John bows to the necessity; calls the barons to a confer- 
ence on an island in the Thames near a marshy meadow 
by the riverside, the meadow of Runnymeade; on the 15th 
of July they meet ; the great Charter is discussed and agreed 
to in a single day. 

A proud day for Englishmen, and yet there was nothing 
new in that sacred document, now gazed at with reverence 



1 66 SPR AGUE'S SPEECHES. 

by the whole English speaking race. Then why this rev- 
erence? Because, though copying, in the main, the Char- 
ter of Henry I. and incorporating little else than the re- 
forms under Henry II., it came as a treaty (though in form 
a grant) of a nation — a united community — a nation com- 
posed not of nobles or of class as distinguished from class, 
but of Englishmen — with its sovereign. It is here that 
national patriotism and national sympathy gets its first de- 
cided, self assertive impulse. It is to this that the thirteen 
centuries, which we have so faintly outlined, have been 
groping in unconscious obedience to the purpose of Al- 
mighty God. The words of Magna Charta fall upon "the 
ear of the earnest student of history with a grandeur and a 
solemnity that must have awed the people of Israel in the 
"Thou shalt not kill ; thou shalt not bear false witness ; 
thou shalt not covet." None the less the voice of God 
are the words of the Great Charter, because wrung from a 
despot by a suffering people. They were not written upon 
tablets of stone and delivered amid the thunders of Sinai — 
but they come in a way infinitely more wonderful and writ- 
ten upon the hearts and consciences of men with the blood 
and tears of centuries. In the forty years in the wilder- 
ness, Moses was required to bring back the people to the 
memories of Sinai by exhibiting before them the tables of 
stone; so in the past seven hundred years the English people 
and all who lay claim to English liberties have had in their 
wanderings to have brought before them from time to 
time visions of this old Charter of King John. 

4: ^ N: 4: * 4: 4: 



SFRAGUE'S SPEECHES. 167 

By your kindness it is my privilege to address this, the 
largest and most influential law students' society in Amer- 
ica, on "The steps that led up to Magna Charta." No law 
student can be indifferent to this subject. You will pardon 
me if I express the hope that no law student before me is 
attempting the study of the Common Law without a pre- 
vious, or at least an accompanying, study of English His- 
tory — and by English History I do not mean the recitals 
of mere intrigues, battles, and coronations, but the history 
of the people themselves, — the life of the masses, — the 
struggle for education, for freedom of religious worship, for 
the right to possess, enjoy and dispose of honestly acquired 
property; for the right to buy and sell, to regulate local 
affairs, and to have a representative voice in the law mak- 
ing, the law interpreting, and the law executing. 

The mere learning of ita est scripta, the mere memorizing 
of the principles of modern law and the leading exceptions, 
coupled with a fair ability to apply these principles to cases 
in hand, may make a tolerable lawyer. Men may win cases 
by sheer force of lung power, by tricks of action and rhet- 
oric, by knowledge of the hidden springs, the touching of 
which with adroit fingers produce desired results with 
judges and juries. Men may, parrot-like, repeat verbatim 
the words of statutes and decisions and we may call them 
lawyers. God save the mark if this is all ! I ask you not 
to be satisfied with the letter of the law, but to drink deep 
of its spirit. Learn to love the law by living over the 
struggles in its behalf. Make yourself one with the men 
of all time who have drawn cross-bow, battle-axe, spear, 



i68 SPRAGUE'S SPEECHES. 

and musket, to establish it. Suffer with them spoliation of 
house and field that a magnificent despot might lead their 
sons to useless and wicked war. Suffer with them the 
humiliation of serfdom while the land that they and their 
fathers bought with the best blood of Europe is made the 
football of wicked despots and designing courtesans. 

Learn the value of these principles which you are study- 
ing, by knowing what it has cost to establish them. You 
will then come from the study of history to your law-books 
as the Levite approached the Temple Altar. 

"Put off the shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon 
thou standest is holy ground." 



THE MINNESOTA ASSOCIATION. 

A TOAST TO ''FRATERNITY," DELIVERED AT THE IN- 

A UGURAL BANQUET OF THE MINNESOTA AS SO CIA TION 

OF THE BETA THETA PI COLLEGE FRATERNITY, 

AT ST. PAUL, MINNESOTA, IN 1884. 

Brothers of the Beta Theta Pi: 

You have proposed a toast to the Minnesota Associa- 
tion. I may say, the Minnesota Association speaks for 
itself. The fact that out of 25 Betas scattered throughout 
this State 17 have come to this first meeting and banquet 
is an eloquent response in itself to this sentiment. 

I can perhaps do no better this evening in responding to 
this toast than to make you acquainted with the personnel 
of our organization, and to outline to you its purposes and 
plans. First, let me say that the spirit of our fraternity 
is progress. From the time of its cradling in an obscure 
Ohio college, nearly fifty years ago, activity, enterprise, 
constant progress has characterized its career. It has 
leaped the bounds of sectionalism. It owes allegiance to 
no section, no party, no creed. In its infancy, it converted 
Ohio and Indiana, body and soul, so that to-day no man 
in those two states has a show in this world, — and I was 
about to add, the next — unless once he has tasted 'the 
Pierian spring of Betaism, and romped in childhood about 

169 



I70 SPR AGUE'S SPEECHES. 

the knee of "Father WoogHn." Ohio's next governor is a 
Beta. Indiana has had a Beta governor ever since the 
dawn of history. Both of her Senators, the tall sycamore 
of the Wabash, Daniel Voorhies, and Fighting Joe Mc- 
Donald are Betas. Her distinguished ex- Vice-President, 
Schuyler Colfax, Postmaster General Gresham and Dr. 
Theophilus Parvin are Betas. Her old war governor and 
able Senator, now dead, Oliver P. Morton, was a Beta, and 
doubtless is yet. The next President of the United States, 
if a Democrat, will come from Ohio or Indiana, and the 
only men in those two States who have any chance for that 
place on that ticket are Geo. Hoagley, Durbin Ward, Gen. 
Gresham and Senator McDonald, — all Betas. 

Beta Theta Pi early planted herself in a half a dozen 
southern colleges ; and these chapters the troublous times 
of the war failed to exterminate. During the last decade, 
Alpha Sigma Chi glided into the harbor of Betaism. Beta 
Theta Pi to-day shows a strong and determined front, amid 
the powerful eastern fraternities, at Harvard, Brown, Bos- 
ton, Maine State, Union, Stevens' Institute, Columbia, Rut- 
gers, Cornell, St. Lawrence, Madison, Amherst and Johns 
Hopkins. 

Not content with victories in the eastern and southern 
and middle States, Beta Theta Pi has followed Horace 
Greeley's advice, and captured Iowa, Illinois, Wisconsin, 
Kansas, — yes, has followed civilization to the Golden Gate, 
and there established "Omega," a chapter which success- 
fully fought a supreme court, and is to-day, though draw- 
ing its life-blood from a source thousands of miles away, 
yet the rosiest cheeked "chap" among the young chapters. 



SFRAGUE'S SPEECHES, 171 

Not content with conquests that have made her the only 
truly national college fraternity, she has elevated the tone 
and dignity of her organization and membership, till the 
fraternity world places her among the three best fraterni- 
ties, and the one of those three best calculated to increase in 
usefulness and power. Her national conventions are gath- 
erings of her representative men from all sections, whose 
deliberations are watched with interest by all fraternities. 
She was the first to move in the matter of a "pan-Hellenic 
Council." She was the first to fling to the light of a sus- 
picious and jealous public, her constitution. Her journal 
is in the front rank of fraternity journalism. Unlike many of 
her rivals, she has never yielded to the pernicious custom 
of electing merely honorary members, and has virtually 
discarded that equally pernicious custom of initiating 
"preps." Such, in brief, is the position Beta Theta Pi occu- 
pies to-day ; and I desire those who have not kept the run 
of fraternity matters for some years, who have allowed the 
finger of time to erase some good things from their mem- 
ories, who have allowed the dust of worldly strife to accu- 
mulate upon some old pictures in their mind's gallery — I 
desire these brothers to open their eyes to the fact, that 
while they have been sleeping, something has happened. 
Beta Theta Pi has been making men presidents, senators, 
legislators, judges, — a few lawyers and other such rubbish. 
She has been girdling the continent with links of fraternity, 
has whipped two supreme courts and forever, as long as 
time shall last, at least during good behavior, she has the 
drop on the United States Supreme Court by numbering 



172 SPR AGUE'S SPEECHES. 

among her members three of the Supreme Court judges, — 
Matthews, Harlan and Woods: but I do not desire you to 
think so highly of our Beta Theta Pi, but that one very 
large corner of your heart will be left for the Minnesota 
Association, to whose members I now give you a formal 
introduction. 

[Here followed brief personal allusions.] 

The Minnesota Association, gentlemen, is an established 
fact. It has to-night formally taken its place among the 
great events of history and will "go down" with the rest. 
What it may accomplish in the future may be judged from 
its brief but brilliant past. But a few weeks ago a small 
company of men, strangers to one another, met to take 
measures for organizing this State Association. Hardly 
any three of those who sit before me had at that time an 
acquaintance with one another. Since then the leaven has 
been at work, and to-night we clasp fraternal hands and 
meet no more as strangers. What in the future this Asso- 
ciation may do in strengthening this friendship, in welcom- 
ing to our State others who will come, in affording a chan- 
nel by which we can communicate with the general frater- 
nity, in opening to our eyes the growth and importance of 
Beta Theta Pi, I leave for you to conjecture. 

I need not say that no organization can long continue 
which depends for its support alone upon its officers. Each 
of us has a place and a duty, and yet Beta Theta Pi adds 
no new duties to our lives. We are all bound by that 
greatest of all laws, to love our neighbors as ourselves, — 
a law written in the Book, in nature, and in every man's 



SPR AGUE'S SPEECHES. 173 

conscience. Beta Theta Pi teaches this great truth. Your 
allegiance to her does not bid you take poison or hug a 
snake to your bosom, but it teaches, and the lesson is worth 
the learning, that there are fewer snakes than we are wont 
to think, A man grows rusty and sour from isolation ; he 
should gather closer about him his circle of friends. He 
should not burrow into his business and draw after him his 
petty possessions — viewing the world as through a knot 
hole ; it is such men who scowl at fraternities, — lean, sour, 
moldy, disappointed men — to whom friendship and brother- 
hood are obsolete words, coined for fools and the weak- 
minded. To such men, you and I are only useful to the 
extent that we may render them a service. The word fra- 
ternity should be to us a grand word, — not only to college 
boys, but for mature men. It is the word that is to banish 
discord the world over. That word once grasped in all its 
meaning, and wars will cease. 

Fraternity, then, is the force that is to bind together this 
Association. Its coherency depends upon no laws, and 
upon no outward force, but upon the spirit of its member- 
ship. Our meetings must be held at long intervals, and 
our organization will have few outward signs of life, yet 
the interests and purposes of the Minnesota Association 
of Beta Theta Pi will be fully subserved, if the principles 
of fraternity find a lodgment in every heart and an exem- 
plification in every life. 



ADDRESS TO NEWSBOYS. 

ADDRESS DELIVERED SUNDAY EVEISriNG, MAR. 6, i8g8, 

TO THE DETROIT NEWSBOYS' ASSOCIATION 

AND THEIR FRIENDS. 

Mr. Chairman, Newsboys, Ladies and Gentlemen : — I must 
come before you with an apology. I know that apologies 
are distasteful to boys. If there is anything that a boy does 
not like to do himself, it is to apologize, and he admires it 
just as much in another. However, your chairman has 
placed me in an embarrassing position. He has introduced 
me as one of your friends. You may judge how much of a 
friend I am when I tell you that this is the first time that I 
have met with you. I must therefore apologize for not being 
the friend that I should have been, and sort of take back the 
apology by saying that I have been your friend at a distance; 
I have known of your work and been interested in it, as have 
all other citizens of our good city; I have been proud of the 
strength and influence of your organization; I have always 
been proud of the kind of boys who sell papers on our streets 
and I have often said that I thought the newsboys of Detroit 
were the best behaved and best regulated set of little young- 
sters in the world. I know, now, tliat you will accept my 
apology. 

I am interested in boys; first, because I was once a boy 
myself, and that, too, not very long ago, and second, because 
I own a boy of my own. You may not be particularly inter- 
ested in my boyhood, but I am going to say that I started in 

174 



SPRAGUE'S SPEECHES. 175 

life as a merchant at the tender age of nine. I kept store in 
my father's barn, and stocked it with all kinds of things from 
my mother's pantry; I bought eggs from the neighbors' 
boys, paying for them at the rate of one cent each, and sold 
them to my mother at two cents each, making, as you will 
see, a good round profit I had a setting hen which was about 
to come "off her perch" with a brood of chicks, when one 
day there appeared in my store a lad bearing thirteen nice, 
fresh eggs, for which I paid him one cent apiece. I sold 
them to my mother, but she never used them, the discovery 
having been made that my hen had lost her eggs. My 
father concluded that I was not shrewd enough for a mer- 
cantile career so I closed up shop, — made an assignment, as 
it were. I then went into the chicken business, and the 
height of my ambition was to be a successful poultry-man. 
In order that my business might be conducted systemat- 
ically and successfully, I obtained from a merchant one of 
his old ledgers, — such a one as you have seen in the count- 
ing rooms of the big merchants on Jefferson avenue. I 
opened a ledger account with every hen, putting at the head 
of each page the name of a hen, and then I spent my time 
watching the hens lay and crediting each hen with the num- 
ber of eggs she produced. You will therefore see that I 
have had considerable business experience in mercantile and 
manufacturing lines, so that I may well be interested in 
you young merchants. 

I have been somewhat troubled to know just what to say 
to you. From the newspapers in the past years I have gath- 
ered that the average speaker who comes before you tells 
you to be good, to be honest, to be true, not to swear, lie, 



176 SPR AGUE'S SPEECHES. 

cheat, or steal, but love your little brothers and sisters, and 
obey your fathers and mothers. All of this is very good, but 
I imagine that it grows a little tiresome to you, so I 
thought I would not preach you any sermons. I suppose, 
too, that you have had told to you the stories of all the little 
boys who have become great men, and were I to begin tell- 
ing you about a boy who walked down the streets of Phil- 
adelphia with a loaf of bread under his arm, you would im- 
mediately sing out, Benjamin Franklin; and were I to start 
to say something about a canal boat you would shout, Gar- 
field; and were I to say anything about splitting rails you 
would cry out, Lincoln ; and if I were to say anything about 
hatchets and cherry trees you would all sing out, Washing- 
ton; so I would have a serious time making up a speech 
about great little boys who became great men. 

I will have to take some text, however, so I will talk to 
you a few moments on "Find Out What You Are Good 
For." 

You know, of course, that on every ship that sails the seas 
there is carried a needle which is guarded with the greatest 
care ("the compass" — many voices). That is right, and it 
pomts always in one direction — to one star ("North star" — 
many voices). Correct! No matter which way the ship is 
going, no matter whether the sea be calm or rough, peaceful 
or stormy, that needle always points to the north. Now, in 
every little boy, if we could but know it and could see it, 
there is way down deep, a little needle that points to his des- 
tiny. Every little boy before me was created for some pur- 
pose in life, and I have come to tell you that it is the duty of 
every little fellow here, and it is also the duty of every little 



SPRAGUE'S SPEECHES. 177 

fellow's father and mother, to find out just in what direction 
that needle points. In some instances it is very hard to find 
this out; in other instances it is very easy. It is not very 
bard to find out what that little boy is good for who just a 
moment ago spoke to you from this stage; that little boy 
has a wonderful memory, and a wonderful command of 
language, and would make an orator; the needle points in 
that direction just as surely as does the compass needle point 
to the north. There is not one boy in a hundred thousand 
that could do what he has just done. He will be untrue to 
himself, untrue to his friends, untrue to his Maker, 
unless he develops that wonderful talent that he has. 
That little girl who just sang to you has a beautiful 
voice, uncultivated but naturally sweet and resonant. If cul- 
tivated she can sometime surprise and delight thousands of 
men and women just as she has delighted a few hundred 
boys and girls to-night. She will do wrong if she does not 
recognize the direction in which her needle points, and her 
parents, if she has parents, will do wrong if they do not make 
every effort in their power to cultivate and bring to its full- 
est fruition the gift that God has planted in her. But with 
most of these boys and girls it is very difficult to find out just 
what they are good for. How many hundreds of thousands of 
boys and girls grow up to be men and women without ever 
finding out this secret ! And so there are thousands of law- 
yers that ought to be farmers, and, shall I say it, thousands 
of farmers who ought to be lawyers ; lots of cooks that ought 
to be seamstresses, and seamstresses that ought to be cooks; 
artists that ought to be blacksmiths and blacksmiths that 
ought to be artists, etc., etc. 



178 SPR AGUE'S SPEECHES. 

I am inclined to think that most boys know better than do 
their parents what they are good for. Very often a Httle 
boy has a capacity for improvement in certain Hnes and he 
does not get that instruction because his parents want him 
to be something else, something other than he wants to be or 
oitght to be. Little boys are repressed and held in and 
turned away from things which they naturally do well, and 
are compelled to do things which they can never do other 
than poorly, and which God never intended they should do. 

Let me tell you a story about a man of whom perhaps you 
never heard. His name was Thomas Edward, When he 
was a little boy, just able to walk, he ran away from home, 
and when his parents and neighbors came to look for him 
they found him in a pig-sty fast asleep among a litter of lit- 
tle pigs and an old sow that was too fierce for grown people 
to come near. He developed a great interest in animals. He 
usea to come into the house with his pockets full of worms, 
insects, snakes, frogs, crickets, and everything that he could 
pick up, and let them loose in the house and watch them 
jump about. After one escapade Hke this his mother tied 
him to the leg of a table, and when her back was turned he 
pulled the table over to the fire, and burnt ofif the rope, made 
his escape, and brought back again that night more animals 
to terrify the household. Then she hid his clothes and he 
wrapped himself up in his mother's skirt and made another 
expedition, this time bringing home a wasp's nest full of live 
wasps, which did not seem to mind him at all, and did not 
try to sting him. Thea he was sent to school, but he did not 
succeed in school any better than he had at home, in doing 
what his parents wanted him to do. While the teacher was 



SPR AGUE'S SPEECHES. 179 

opening the school with prayer a jackdaw peeped out of 
the boy's pocket and cawed lustily. The teacher sent Thomas 
home. He was sent to another school and a live centipede 
was found one day in the desk of one of the boys and the 
only boy who knew where it came from was Thomas Ed- 
ward. And so at six years of age he was turned loose on the 
street without his even knowing his letters. But once out 
from under parental care and discipline he was free to do as 
he pleased, and he lived most of his time among animals. He 
apprenticed himself to a cobbler and learned the shoe trade, 
but spent only enough time every day at the bench to earn 
his living and the rest of his time roamed about the 
country picking up all manner of little animals and bringing 
them home and studying them. Finally, when he grew to be 
a man, he was the possessor of one of the most splendid col- 
lections of animals that anyone ever had. Then he made up 
his mind that he must learn how to read and write in order 
that he might tell the world about what he had learned, and 
so he sold four cartloads of his specimens for $100 with 
which to pay a teacher to teach him to read and write. Then 
he began to study, arrange, classify, and write, until final- 
ly he became one of the greatest naturalists the world has 
ever known. Had that boy's parents and his teachers recog- 
nized which way the needle pointed in that boy they could 
have developed a greater naturalist than Agassiz, but they 
did not recognize it and so you never have heard of Thomas 
Edward as you might have heard of him had he been given 
the proper chance. 

Why doesn't the father do with the boy as does the man 
who owns a young colt? If he discovers that the colt is 



i8o SPR AGUE'S SPEECHES, 

quiet and gentle of disposition, is a "nice looker" and of the 
proper size, and color, and all that, he says, "I will make a 
'ladies' horse' out of him." So he trains him for ladies to 
drive. If he is a good, strong horse with big legs and 
muscles, he says, "I will make a draft horse out of him," and 
so he trains him to draw heavy loads and sells him at a big 
price to a man who wants him to draw a big truck; if he is a 
particularly intelligent horse and can do tricks, is quick to 
obey and showy, he says, "I will make a trick horse out of 
him," and he trains him to the doing of all manner of funny 
things and finally sells him to a show-man for a good round 
price and he becomes a show horse. Perhaps the colt has 
remarkable speed and is built to run; then he makes a race 
horse out of him. Not so with our boys and girls. Our par- 
ents do not study us enough ; they let things go too much by 
chance. If we develop a fancy for music and can play a lit- 
tle on almost any kind of an instrument, if we love to hear 
music, and to make it, we are early taught that we make too 
n:uch noise about the house, and we are scolded and slam- 
med around because we are trying to do that which God in- 
tended us to do. Then we are set to work doing something 
which is contrary to our disposition and to our talents. 

I suppose I am making you boys unruly and that you will 
all go home to-night and tell your parents that they don't 
know what is good for you; not so. I do not want to make 
you undutiful, but I want every one of you boys to figure out 
in his own mind what he is good for, and then make every 
eflfort possible in life to develop your natural talents. 

In most cases, however, a boy's talent will assert itself 
despite obstacles, and you can usually trust a boy to bring 



SPR AGUE'S SPEECHES. i8i 

about what in the nature of things ought to be. Be sure, 
however, that you do not spoil the job, boys, by bad habits, 
and bad companions, and bad reading; and if you find, when 
you come to get a place in life, that you do not fill the place 
very well, and that you are not satisfied with yourself and 
others are not satisfied with you, don't make up your mind 
that you are not good for anything. Some time ago an em- 
ploye was turned out of his place in one of our large mercan- 
tile houses. Going to his employer the poor fellow said, 
"Well, I must be good for some thing." The employer re- 
plied, "You cannot sell goods ; you have tried that and you 
have failed." "But I can do something," he repeated. "What 
can you do?" said the employer. "I don't know, but I know 
that I can do something." Impressed with the earnestness of 
the young man, his employer gave him a subordinate posi- 
tion in the office, — that of copying work the bookkeeper 
gave him to do. He developed such accuracy and speed, 
such neatness and dispatch, in this work that he soon came 
to be assistant bookkeeper, and finally head bookkeeper, and 
at last managing partner of the great establishment. There 
was something that that young man could do and it was only 
necessary to find out what the something was in order that 
he might be a great success. 

Now, boys, I am going to bid you good-night. You have 
been very patient, and you have listened to me as if you really 
intended to follow my advice. I have not lived very long 
myself, but I believe it is good advice.- I am sure that I wish 
that every one of you might become a good and great man. 
In this free country of ours, you have the opportunity. You 
are all little patriots and love your country, as I could see 



1 82 SFEAGUE'S SPEECHES. 

by your splendid applause when "Old Glory" was 
brought upon the stage, and when you sang with 
such heartiness the "Star Spangled Banner." I hope 
we shall not have war with Spain, but if we do 
I hope that every little newsboy in Detroit will be 
loyal to the flag, and if he cannot go to war he can at least 
shout for those who do. Whether in our bodies runs the 
blood of the Italian, the Irish, the German, the Pole, the 
Dane, the Swede, the Scotch, or the English, let us remem- 
ber that we are all Americans and all for the Red, White and 
Blue. Good-night. 



PRESENTATION SPEECH.* 

Mr. President and Fellow Members: 

The old adage, "troubles never come singly," has 
been verified, in that you are to have two speeches from 
me within as many months. I sincerely sympathize with 
you as I am sure you are not the only sufferer. My only 
apology must be that I have been commanded to talk to 
you again, and in this day of wars and rumors of wars, it 
behooves every man to be a soldier and obey. I some times 
wish that I had not been educated to the law, for to have 
been so educated has brought its penalty, in that I have 
been required to talk when I ought, and would prefer, to 
keep still. I presume that this requirement upon the pro- 
fession is a part of the "woe unto you, lawyers" that was 
uttered by the Man of Galilee ; and yet to show that it was 
not meant that utter and dire woe should always and 
ever follow the profession, it may be said that St. Paul was 
a lawyer and that in his letter to Titus he requested him to 
bring with him Zena, the lawyer, and to see that nothing 
was lacking for his comfort. 

It particularly behooves us, as members of the Detroit 
Credit Men's Association, at this time, to be loyal in the 
discharge of duties put upon us by our worthy commander, 

*Delivered on the occasion of the presentation of a diamond 
ring to D. C. Delamater, president of the Detroit Ctedit Men's 
Association. Tuesday evening, March iS'.h, at a banquet at the 
Russell House, Detroit, Mich. 

183 



1 84 SPR AGUE'S SPEECHES. 

as in the coming months our fidelity to the cause will be 
put to a severe test. I am glad to see that the indications 
are that our Association will not be found wanting when 
that time comes, though I am free to say that we shall soon 
need to close up our ranks and look out for stragglers and 
deserters. I am not sure but what our Membership Com- 
mittee should look well to the recruiting office, as our force, 
good so far as it goes, is inadequate for the great task of 
caring for a National Convention composed of such men 
as represent the National Association of Credit Men. 

In casting about in my mind for a subject on which I 
might address you this evening I could think of none more 
appropriate to the occasion than this sentiment, — "Our 
President— De Witt C. Delamater/' 

It is a peculiarly fitting time to offer this sentiment as 
out of the bigness of his heart we are privileged to enjoy 
this season of social intercourse, in this elegant hostelry, at 
his expense. To say that we appreciate this delicate com- 
pliment to the Association and its members, is to express 
very feebly our real feelings. It is easy to be generous, 
open-hearted, open-handed, and friendly, when it costs 
nothing; but when a man voluntarily goes down into his 
pockets for the price of an act of courtesy and yields some- 
thing of a sacrifice in order to do a kindness, it means 
something more. Such favors are richer and sweeter than 
those which pass current between man and man as matters 
of course, which cost no thought, no effort, no sacrifice. 
Like the waters that come from the deepest wells, such 
acts sparkle and cheer. You remember the old well in 



SPRAGUE'S SPEECHES. 185 

the old home, its bucket and its windlass, and its long 
chain which was indeed an endless one; you recall the 
labored creak of the crank as you turned and turned and 
finally brought to the surface the sparkling treasure that, 
gurgling down your parched throat, was to you like the 
nectar of the Gods. It cost something to get it, but how 
infinitely purer and better it was when it touched your lips 
than the insipid surface water caught in barrels from the 
eaves, or stored in cisterns, or stagnating in little streams 
upon the surface. So, that courtesy and kindness which 
has cost its giver something is peculiarly refreshing and 
inspiring. Such acts are akin to those of mercy, for even 
though done to those whose necessities do not require 
them, yet their quality is not strained; they drop as the 
gentle rain from heaven on the place beneath; they are 
twice blessed, they bless him that gives and him that takes. 
It is fitting therefore, that I propose to you the toast, 
"Our President, De Witt C. Delamater, May He Return 
Late to Heaven," and I ask you to drink it with me stand- 
ing. 

Fill with me the rosy wine, 
Call a toast, a toast divine; 
Give the Muse's choicest flame, 
Delamater be the name; 
Then thou mayest freely boast. 
Thou hast given a peerless toasi 

This is a good time to consider one feature of our organ- 
ization which we are liable to lose sight of, viz., the social 



i86 SFRAGUE'S SPEECHES. 

feature of it. I am aware that in this day of multiplicity 
of organizations, this day of hurry and bustle of social 
life, the majority of us have little need of an additional 
stimulus to sociability. The common complaint now is that 
social functions are crowding out the more sober and sub- 
stantial things that should engage our attention, such as 
reading, study, self-improvement, church and family duties. 
I grant this, and yet I claim that there is a need of the 
cultivation, among credit men, of a mutual interest and a 
mutual regard. No class of persons needs it more. The 
business of the credit man is a cold, calculating, one. He 
stands as a sentinel on the watch-tower of the business 
world, requiring, from every one who approaches, a pass- 
port of good character and financial responsibility; with- 
out the talismanic word he bars the entrance. This duty 
makes him cold, calculating, and suspicious. By long ex- 
perience he has learned to discount reputation. This habit 
of mind growing upon him stamps his character ; it freezes 
the young blood in his veins, dries up the wells of his sym- 
pathy, and obliterates from his life that element of uncalcu- 
lating trust and confidence, that, however disastrous it may 
be in business, is yet the chief charm of social intercourse. 
I count it well worth the expense and effort required to 
maintain this organization that credit men are brought 
together and compelled by this means to know one another 
in some other relation than as business rivals and com- 
batants. It is for this reason more than for any other, that 
I count this Association fortunate in having at its head a. 
man with the qualities of heart and head that are possessed 



SPRAGUE'S SPEECHES. 187 

by our President. I am glad to say that I am not the only 
one who has recognized in Mr. Delamater a leader worthy 
of our esteem and our affection. He stands head and 
shoulders above us all in his uniform courtesy, his kindly 
patience, his unswerving fidelity to our interests. Recog- 
nizing in him those noble qualities of mind and heart that 
deserve preferment, we at once on the organization of this 
Association placed him at its head, and with a unanimity, 
gratifying alike to him and to us, we have decreed that he 
shall continue as our leader during this, the third year of 
the Association's life. Most men would consider this a 
sufficient compliment, and I doubt not that our President 
has felt in view of this distinction a degree of satisfaction 
and some little re-payment for his time and thought given 
to the work. Members of the Association, however, have 
not been satisfied to let their appreciation be thus measured, 
for in the gift to you, Mr. President, of three terms of office, 
we have had a selfish motive : we chose you, not so much 
by way of appreciation of your character as for what you 
could do for us. But the old Roman Seneca says : "There 
is no grace in a benefit that sticks to the fingers." Permit 
us, therefore, to present to you a gift from which we ex- 
pect no return, excepting your kindly remembrance of the 
men who make it and of the occasion which brings it forth. 
Perhaps no words are harder to utter than words such as 
I would speak to you as I present to you this token, not 
because thoughts are wanting but because the deepest 
sentiments are those which spring the slowest to the lips. 
This ring must, however, be to you a symbol. Our regard 



1 88 SPR AGUE'S SPEECHES. 

for you shines in the light that gleams from its diamond. 
It knows no beginning or ending ; it is therefore a continu- 
ing and hallowing pledge of that respect which we owe to 
you, that must continue through your life. As the gold 
that composes it wears away, as it must in coming years, 
may the hand which it graces be more and more filled with 
gold, which at the bidding of a generous heart shall ever 
open liberally as it has in the past. 

"The summers may come and the summers may go, 
And the winters may whiten the head with their snow, 
But let no earnest of joy in the heavens above 
Be more sure than that ring and its cycle of love." 



Joseph H. Vance. 

Law Librarian 

of ttie University 

of Mlclilgan. 



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FOR many years the author has felt that there ought to be a practice book 
especially adapted to the needs of young lawyers, containing answers to 
the numberless questions arising in the practice of the law, and direc- 
tions, suggestions, and definite information along practical lines that are not 
contained in law books generally, or, if contained in them, so hidden as not to 
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In preparing this book I have purposely avoided, as far as possible, the discus- 
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Detroit, Michigan, December ist, 1897. 




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JUDGE J. W. DOHOVAH. 



BOOKS THAT MAY BE TERMED 
SIDE-LIGHTS ON THE PRACTICE 
OF LAWx^^NVALUABLE AND IN- 
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17,000 SOLD. 

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ISemt Postpaid on JSeceipt of Price. 

The Collector Publishihg Co., 

PUBLISHERS and ■-% < «<i »^ . . 

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THIS is a book that was written more for the entertainment 
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THE COLLECTOR 
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THIS is the title of a book- 
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Criminal Law, by John G. Hawley, 
one of the authors of Hawley & 
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Mining: Law, by John B. Clayberg, 

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Patent Law, by Albert H. Walker, 
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Medical Jurisprudence, by Marshall D. 
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lege of Law, Chicago. 

Real Estate Law, by Darius H. Pin- 

frey, author of Pingrey on Real 
roperty, Bloomington, 111. 

Commercial Law, by Hon. Daniel K. 
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Law Teaching, by Prof. Edwin H. 
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Insurance Law, by D. Ostrander, of 
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Admiralty Law, by Martin Clark, of 
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Corporation Law, by Charles F. Math- 
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General Practice, by John B. Green, 
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yer and law student. 



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THE COLLECTOR PUBLISHING CO., 

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odd IBmmt Speeches. 



Speakers* 

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j&eliverefl, $U50* 



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^E BUY, SELL AND EXCHANGE 

LAW BOOKS 

IF YOU EVER WANT A BOOK, 
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....A New Students* Book on,... 



/^ 



Criminal Law 



JOHN G. HAWLEY, 

Professor of Criminal Law In the Detroit College of Law, first 
Editor of the American Criminal Reports, and author of numer« 
ous standard works on separate. branches of the Criminal Law; 



MALCOLM McGregor, 

Also of the Faculty of the Detroit Collegelof Law. 

This book is the outgrowth of years of study, practice and teach- 
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It was written for the use of students rather than practitioners, 
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That a magazine that contains all the news of the commercial law world, 
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Aims to fill your needs in this respect exactly. It gives you all the 
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Sl.OO Per Year. DETROIT, MICH. 



is^Law S 
Helper. 



A Monthly Magazine 
___—«-—,-». w- w^.^ ^ ^^.^ w .T for Law Students and 

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This magazine interests law students because it gives them practical help 
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That it is popular with its subscribers and worthy of your patronage is 
evidenced by the fact that it has attained a greater circulation than any other 
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Snbscribe at Once. THE COLLECTOR PUBLISHING CO., 

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QUIZ!=QUIZ!=^QUIZI 



Do YOU KNOW of any better method of impressing upon your mind what 
you have read than questions and answers ? We do not, and this method 
has been endorsed by all thinkers since Socrates. And how much more 
valuable it is when questions have been selected by a master, so that they cover 
just the points that you should remember, and bring out all the phases of each 
subject, many of which you would never notice in merely studying the text-book, 
and show its many sides and in different lights in a way that is most beneficial to 
the student, but which is foreign to the nature of text-books. But a properly 
conducted Quiz should not be a mere aid to the memory. It should not be con- 
fined to showing the student how much or how little he knows. It should be 
instructive in the highest sense. Naturally, the answering of the questions com- 
pels the student to both remember and think, but the questions should also be so 
framed as to teach him to think, as by suggesting new phases of the subject and 
new lines of thought, and by calling for reasons and principles as well as mere 
rules. The questioner should never be satisfied with a mere parrot-like repetition 
of the text-book, and the questions should be so framed that that will not be 
sufficient. 

With these principles in mind we have had prepared a series of quiz books 
which we call the Quizzer Series. That they are helpful to the students, we have 
the highest evidence, viz. : large sales and students who have bought one book, 
coming back for subsequent numbers. Each book consists of two parts. Part I 
containing the questions and being interleaved with blank pages on which the stu- 
dent may write his answers, and Part II containing the correct answers and 
explanations. 

Here is the list. Some new ones are just out. You can't do the best work 
without them. 

Have you them all ? Fill out your set QUICK. 



Blackstone Quizzer A (on Book 1 of Blackstone), 
" B " 2 " 

" C " 3 
" D " 4 " 

Kent Quizzer E (on book 1 of Kent's Commentaries), 



" 


fcv 


F 


2 


" 


" 


G 


3 " 


" 


" 


H 


4 


Quizzer No. 


1. 


Domestic Relations, 




No. 


2. 


Criminal Law, 




No. 


3. 


Torts, 




No. 


4. 


Real Property, 




No. 


5. 


Constitutional Law, 




No. 


6. 


Contracts, 




No. 


8. 


Common Law Reading, 




No. 


9. 


Corporations, - 




No. 


10. 


Bills, Notes and Checks, 




No. 


11. 


Equity, - - - - 




No. 


13. 


Agency, 




No. 


13. 


Partnership, - 




No. 


14. 


Sales of Personal Property, 




No. 


15. 


Evidence, 



60 cts. 
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60 cts. 
60 cts. 
60 cts. 
60 cts. 
50 cts. 
50 cts. 
50 cts. 
50 cts. 
50 cts. 
50 cts. 
50 cts. 
50 cts. 
50 cts. 
50 cts. 
50 cts. 
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50 sts. 
50 cts. 
50 cts. 



^P~ OTHERS TO FOLLOW. 



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